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Ninth Circuit affirms reversal of death sentence for IAC in penalty phase

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defense counsel was ineffective for failing to adequately prepare a penalty phase where the client was sentenced to death. Both the called witnesses and the defendant were unprepared to testify in any meaningful way, and there was a mitigation case to be made. Both the district court and the Ninth Circuit panel found deficient performance (the dissenter finding no prejudice). There were other lay and expert witnesses who could have been called to testify about defendant's life before the crime and after imprisonment. Belmontes v. Ayers, 2008 WL 2390140 (9th Cir. June 13, 2008).

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on June 15, 2008 (boomark / email).