Schurz v. Schriro, No. 07-99025 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death, appealed the denial of his petitions for post-conviction relief based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The court concluded that most of the new evidence was cumulative and minimally significant; that non-cumulative evidence including allegations of sexual abuse, cerebral dysfunction and fetal alcohol syndrome were unsubstantiated by petitioner; most of the remaining evidence was speculative and came nowhere close to showing deficient performance; and the remaining evidence was minimally relevant at best. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus/Death Penalty. The panel denied a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition challenging a murder conviction and capital sentence alleging ineffective assistance for failure to present mitigating evidence. The panel rejected petitioner’s claim that counsel was ineffective by failing to present evidence about his drug abuse and dysfunctional family life, because the evidence he cited would have been cumulative. The panel addressed the remaining evidence that petitioner presented as speculative, minimally relevant at best, and concluded that the evidence was not reasonably likely to have made an impact at sentencing.
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