United States Fourth Circuit

The district court's denial of defendant's habeas corpus petition challenging his conviction of three counts of filing false income tax returns is affirmed, where the district court did not err in concluding that defense counsel's decision not to call certain witnesses at defendant's trial was based on trial strategy alone and not linked to any potential conflict of interest; and thus, 2) defendant has failed to make the threshold showing that the asserted conflict rendered counsel's performance constitutionally deficient.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/23/2014
• Published 01/23/2014

Judges

• MOTZ

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel