Boss, Jr. v. Ludwick, No. 13-2168 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, convicted of murdering his adopted special needs son, appealed the district court's denial of post-conviction relief based on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington. Petitioner contended that he received ineffective assistance from trial counsel because counsel inadequately advised him about whether to disclose the location of the boy's body and then disclosed the location of the body during the bond review hearing. The court concluded that the state court did not render a decision that was contrary to or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established law where counsel's actions reflected a legitimate trial strategy. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Prisoner case - Habeas. Claim that counsel was ineffective both for disclosing the location of the victim's body and for inadequately advising Boss about the merits of disclosing the location of the body, the Iowa state courts' determination that counsel's actions were a reasonable and legitimate defense strategy was neither an unreasonable application of nor contrary to clearly established federal law.
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.