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Failure to obtain experts was IAC where they could have helped defendant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defense counsel's failure to obtain experts and interview State's experts due to defendant's inability to pay constituted error on part of counsel sufficient to support defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in trial for negligent child abuse. The primary issue was whether child's injuries were caused by violent shaking or child having fallen off couch together with other problems associated with child's premature birth, expert testimony was critical to question of causation, and defendant had been found to be indigent and thus, qualified for public defender representation. The defendant was also prejudiced. State v. Schoonmaker, --- P.3d ----, 2008 WL 356947, 2008-NMSC-010 (N.M. January 23, 2008): {33} The primary issue before the jury was what caused Child's injuries: Was it violent shaking or was it a fall from a couch combined with problems associated with Child's premature birth? There were no witnesses to the events that occurred on July 24, 2000, and there was little in the way of circumstantial evidence demonstrating that Defendant had violently shaken the baby...continue to full post

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on February 16, 2008 (boomark / email).