United States Ninth Circuit

In a capital habeas matter, the denial of petitioner's habeas petition is affirmed where: 1) trial counsel's failure to investigate and pursue a Christensen defense did not prejudice petitioner; 2) there was nothing in trial counsel's declaration to contradict the Arizona Supreme Court's finding that petitioner knowingly waived the lesser-included-offense instructions; and 3) even assuming there was a plausible argument that trial counsel should have done more, there was no reasonable probability that the Arizona Supreme Court would have reversed petitioner's capital sentence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/08/2010
• Published 12/08/2010

Judges

• Mary M. Schroeder

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Denise Irene Young, John Pressley Todd