United States Third Circuit
Collins v. Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, 12-3472
The district court properly denied a petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging petitioner's first-degree murder conviction, where: 1) despite serious doubt that trial counsel conducted an adequate investigation, given the uncontroverted evidence presented against petitioner at trial, the state court determination that petitioner failed to show he suffered prejudice was not an unreasonable application of the Supreme Court's decision in Strickland v. Washington, which sets forth the standard for ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims; and 2) petitioner also has not exhausted his claim of cumulative error, which is therefore procedurally defaulted.
Appellate Information
- Decided 01/31/2014
- Published 01/31/2014
Judges
- JORDAN
Court
- United States Third Circuit