United States Ninth Circuit

District court's denial of defendant's request for habeas relief from his capital sentence for a felony murder conviction is affirmed where: 1) because defendant's counsel's decision not to focus on addiction as a mitigating factor was strategic and because he was not prejudiced as a result, defendant fails to meet the Strickland standard; 2) defendant's ineffective assistance of counsel claim, regarding the qualifications of an expert, fails on the prejudice prong of Strickland; 3) the failure-to-investigate portion of defendant's ineffective assistance claims fails on the first prong of Strickland, applying AEDPA deference; and 4) even assuming Martinez exception applies to this case, defendant cannot satisfy its requirements.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/27/2012
• Published 08/27/2012

Judges

• Graber

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel