United States Ninth Circuit

Denial of habeas corpus petition challenging petitioner's conviction and death sentence for the rape and murder of his stepdaughter is affirmed, where: 1) the Washington Supreme Court did not act unreasonably in rejecting petitioner's claim that his shackling on the first day of void dire for the sentencing trial deprived him of due process; 2) even assuming, arguendo, that petitioner can show a violation of due process, he cannot show prejudice because of the limited duration of his shackling and the violent nature of his crime; 3) the Washington Supreme Court reasonably rejected, for failure to show prejudice, petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claim based on counsel's failure to object to the shackling; 4) counsel was not ineffective for proceeding with a remorse-oriented strategy to the exclusion of mental-health and brain-damage defenses; 5) counsel was not ineffective for not objecting to the redaction of petitioner's taped confession, which removed material in which petitioner had expressed regret; 6) even assuming, arguendo, that counsel performed deficiently by advising petitioner to plead guilty, petitioner cannot show that this advice prejudiced him, as it is highly likely that a jury would have still convicted him of the same crime; and 7) petitioner was not deprived of his right to a trial by an impartial jury because a juror lied during voir dire when he stated that he had not been the victim of sexual abuse.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/01/2015
• Published 04/01/2015

Judges

• Smith

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel