United States Second Circuit

Denial of habeas petition is reversed where the only evidence identifying a criminal defendant as the perpetrator is the testimony of a single witness, and where the memory of that witness is obviously impacted by medical trauma and the all-important identification is altered after the administration of medical drugs, the failure of defense counsel to consider consulting an expert to ascertain the possible effects of trauma and pharmaceuticals on the memory of the witness is constitutionally ineffective.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/31/2007
• Published 08/31/2007

Judges

• DENNIS JACOBS, Chief Judge:, Before:  JACOBS, Chief Judge, KATZMANN, and HALL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Anne S. Raish (Mark Pomerantz, of counsel, Stephen H. Yuhan, on the brief) Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP, New York, NY, for Petitioner-Appellant., Lara M. Shalov, Stillman, Friedman, & Shechtman, P.C., New York, NY, for Petitioner-Appellant., Steven Banks, Lawrence T. Hausman, The Legal Aid Society, New York, NY, for Petitioner-Appellant., Howard B. Goodman, Assistant District Attorney (Ann Bordley and Leonard Joblove, of counsel, Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Kings County, on the brief), Office of the Kings County District Attorney, Brooklyn, NY.