United States Sixth Circuit
Babick v. Berghuis, 08-1376
District court's denial of defendant's petition for habeas relief from his convictions for arson and first-degree felony murder, as well as a sentence of two terms of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, is affirmed where: 1) defendant's ineffective assistance of counsel claim is without merit as he has shown no prejudice as a result of his trial counsel's failure to produce an arson expert in support of his not-arson defense; 2) district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's request for an evidentiary hearing; 3) defendant's claim, that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate the basis of a witness's testimony regarding the time of defendant's visit to the house that burned down, is rejected; and 4) defendant's claims of prosecutorial misconduct are rejected.
Appellate Information
- Argued 03/11/2010
- Decided 09/03/2010
- Published 09/03/2010
Judges
Court
- United States Sixth Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- Paul L. Nelson, Laura Graves Moody