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CONVICT MAY GO FREE BECAUSE OF HIS ATTORNEY?S FAILURE TO INTERVIEW KEY WITNESS

By Walin & Klarich

According a recent Ninth Circuit ruling, a Los Angeles man convicted of murder and attempted murder will be able to argue that his conviction should be overturned because his trial lawyer did not interview the survivor, who stated that the defendant did not shoot him. In 2003, Deandre Maurice Howard was convicted of shooting two people outside a liquor store, killing one. Howard repeatedly asked his trial attorney to question the survivor of the shooting, but the attorney refused. The survivor was not called to the witness stand, and Howard was sentenced to life in prison. The survivor later wrote to Howard?s appellate attorney (Howard?s trial counsel did not handle his appeal) that Howard did not shoot the survivor or the dead man. At trial, the prosecution relied exclusively on two eyewitness identifications...continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on June 17, 2010 (boomark / email).