United States Ninth Circuit

In a capital habeas matter in which petitioner challenged the district court's denial, without an evidentiary hearing, of petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance of sentencing counsel, the order is affirmed where: 1) it was clear that defense counsel promptly made appropriate mitigation inquiries and did not wait until after trial to begin their investigation; 2) petitioner failed to explain how an evidentiary hearing would allow him to establish ineffective assistance of counsel; and 3) there was no evidence that counsel's actions somehow impeded a psychologist from performing a thorough neuropsychological evaluation.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/04/2010
• Decided 06/10/2010
• Published 06/10/2010

Judges

• Before ANDREWJ. KLEINFELD, KIM McLANE WARDLAW and CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• The Federal Public Defender of Arizona, Assistant Federal Public Defenders Timothy M. Gabrielsen of Tucson, AZ, and Paula Kay Harms of Phoenix, AZ, for the petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Office of the Arizona Attorney General, Deputy State Attorney General, Jonathan Bass of Tucson, AZ, for the respondent.