State Law

By stan_sipple

U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 05-3930
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis
[PUBLISHED] [John R. Gibson, Author, with Loken, Chief Judge, and
Colloton, Circuit Judge]

Trial counsel for defendant convicted of murdering wheelchair bound minister failed to introduce defendant's complete medical records and to cross-examine the State's psychiatric expert when presenting the defendant's insanity and reduced capacity defenses. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted habeas relief largely upon a subsequent expert's opinion that the defense attorney failed to present evidence that when the defendant went off his medications he became psychotic and violent. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses, finding that even if defense counsel was deficient for not introducing all medical records and cross-examining the states expert, the jury probably would not have changed its mind. Moreover, defense counsel does not perform below standards if another expert would have presented a stronger case for his client's psychiatric defense.Even if (post-conviction expert's) interpretation of the
record makes a more coherent story and a story that would have been more likely to
produce an acquittal, this does not necessarily mean that defendant's trial expert's interpretation was wrong or that counsel was wrong to rely on it. Far less could we say that the state courts were unreasonable in holding counsel's representation was constitutionally acceptable.

Full post as published by Showmeblawgs on December 09, 2007 (boomark / email).