United States Ninth Circuit

The district court's denial of a habeas corpus petition challenging petitioner's conviction of sexually abusing his stepdaughter is reversed and remanded, where: 1) the state court's application of Strickland v. Washington was objectively unreasonable because trial counsel was ineffective when he failed to review petitioner's client file and failed to interview, and then call as a witness, the priest to whom the victim had recanted her allegations of her stepfather's sexual abuse; 2) because counsel has a duty to investigate even if his or her client does not divulge relevant information, reasonable jurists could not disagree that trial counsel's performance here was deficient; 3) there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different; and 4) the state court's finding that the priest's testimony would have been cumulative and would have had no effect on the verdict is an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceedings. (Superseding opinion)

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/19/2014
• Published 05/19/2014

Judges

• PER CURIAM

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel