Lucas v. Warden, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, No. 1311909 (11th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, sentenced to death for his role in three murders, appealed the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. 2254. The court rejected petitioner's claim that counsel was ineffective where he failed to establish prejudice under Strickland v. Washington because the state court reasonably concluded that additional expert testimony would not likely have led to the suppression of his confession, and because a reasonable state court could have rejected petitioner's argument that counsel was ineffective for failing to present all of the available evidence concerning his social history mitigation. The court rejected petitioner's Brady v. Maryland claim where petitioner cannot show prejudice because there is no reasonable probability that an eyewitness's testimony would have affected the outcome. Further, petitioner was not deprived of a fair trial and the trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jurors that each mitigating factor need not be found unanimously. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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