Opinion
22-2657
08-01-2023
United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Hammaduzzaman Syed Defendant-Appellant
Unpublished
Submitted: May 8, 2023.
Appeal from United States District Court for the District of Nebraska - Omaha
Before SHEPHERD, STRAS, and KOBES, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
Hammaduzzaman Syed tried to pay a fifteen-year-old girl he met online for sex, but it turned out he was chatting with an undercover officer. A jury found him guilty of attempted sex trafficking of a minor, see 18 U.S.C. § 1594(a), and the district court sentenced him to 120 months in prison. On appeal, Syed's only argument is that counsel was ineffective for failing to request an entrapment instruction and object at various points during trial. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984).
The Honorable Robert F. Rossiter, Jr., Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.
What we lack at this point, however, is a "properly developed record" to evaluate the claim. United States v. Ramirez-Hernandez, 449 F.3d 824, 827 (8th Cir. 2006). The trial record does not provide enough information, see Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500, 504-05 (2003) (noting that the trial record "will not disclose the facts necessary to decide" if counsel was ineffective), so the claim will have to be litigated, if at all, in a motion brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. See Ramirez-Hernandez, 449 F.3d at 826-27 (explaining that this type of claim is "usually best litigated in collateral proceedings"). We accordingly dismiss the appeal.