United States Ninth Circuit

Judgment denying relief on petitioner's habeas petition challenging his conviction and capital sentence for first-degree murder is: 1) affirmed in part, where although some jurors saw petitioner in shackles while being transported thought the halls of the courthouse, those sporadic sightings did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation; 2) petitioner's lawyer chose a constitutionally permissible guilt-phase strategy of forgoing certain defenses for fear of opening the door to the client's criminal history; 3) petitioner's lawyer provided constitutionally adequate assistance in presenting evidence of his mental illness, his positive adjustment to prison, and in failing to present testimony by petitioner's childhood friend; and 4) vacated in part and remanded, where if petitioner's half-brother had been available to testify, the trial counsel was then ineffective in failing to investigate and present such testimony, as the totality of evidence gives rise to a reasonable probability that the jury may not have rendered a verdict of death had they heard the testimony.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/27/2014
• Published 08/27/2014

Judges

• Graber

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel