Burton, Jr. v. Commissioner, Alabama DOC, No. 10-12108 (11th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, a death row inmate, appealed from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254. On appeal, petitioner asserted that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of his capital murder trial when the court interfered with his counsel's mitigation strategy and when his counsel did not object to the interference. The court held that petitioner failed to point to any clearly established federal law from the United States Supreme Court on the question of whether the ultimate authority to call trial witnesses rested with counsel or the client. Consequently, petitioner's claims were barred under section 2254.
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