Tanzi v. Secretary, FL DOC, No. 13-12421 (11th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, convicted of murder, appealed the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. 2254 habeas petition. The court concluded that the Florida Supreme Court's conclusion that trial counsel made a reasonable strategic decision to compartmentalize petitioner's experts is well within the bounds of reasonableness under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), and petitioner failed to demonstrate prejudice. The court also concluded that petitioner failed to demonstrate ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington where there is not a reasonable probability that investigating and presenting evidence of petitioner's XYY genetic abnormality would have led to a different result; where counsel failed to present the testimony of a mental health expert and provide the expert with a videotape of petitioner's testimony; and where counsel failed to present additional mitigating witnesses. The court also rejected petitioner's Brady claim where petitioner failed to demonstrate a reasonable probability that the result of his proceeding would have been different had the jury heard about his XYY abnormality. Accordingly, the court affirmed the denial of habeas relief.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.