Cite as: 531 U. S. 198 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
See, e. g., United States v. Lombardi, 5 F. 3d 568 (CA1 1993); United States v. Porter, 909 F. 2d 789 (CA4 1990); United States v. Taylor, 984 F. 2d 298 (CA9 1993); United States v. Johnson, 971 F. 2d 562 (CA10 1992); United States v. Harper, 972 F. 2d 321 (CA11 1992). In the trial court, Glover's attorneys did not submit papers or offer extensive oral arguments contesting the no-grouping argument advanced by the Government. When the District Court decided not to group the money laundering counts with the other counts, Glover's offense level was increased by two levels, yielding a concomitant increase in the sentencing range. Glover was sentenced to 84 months in prison, which was in the middle of the Guidelines range of 78 to 97 months.
On appeal to the Seventh Circuit, Glover's counsel (the same attorneys who represented him in District Court) did not raise the grouping issue; instead, they concentrated on claims that certain testimony from his first trial should not have been admitted at his second trial and that he should not have been assessed a two-level increase for perjury at his first trial. A short time after argument on Glover's appeal, a different panel of the Seventh Circuit held that, under some circumstances, grouping of money laundering offenses with other counts was proper under § 3D1.2. United States v. Wilson, 98 F. 3d 281 (1996). A month and a half later, the Seventh Circuit rejected both of Glover's arguments and affirmed his conviction and sentence. 101 F. 3d 1183 (1996).
Glover filed a pro se motion to correct his sentence under 28 U. S. C. § 2255 (1994 ed., Supp. III). The failure of his counsel to press the grouping issue, he argued, was ineffective assistance, a position confirmed, in his view, by the Court of Appeals' decision in Wilson. The performance of counsel, he contended, fell below a reasonable standard both at sentencing, when his attorneys did not with any clarity or force contest the Government's argument, and on appeal, when they did not present the issue in their briefs or call the Wilson decision to the panel's attention following the oral
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