Fairchild v. Trammell, No. 13-6030 (10th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseAn Oklahoma jury found Defendant Richard Fairchild guilty of child-abuse murder in the first degree and recommended the death penalty, which the trial court imposed. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) denied relief on all claims presented on direct appeal and in Defendant’s original application for postconviction review. After the federal district court denied relief on all claims presented in his application for relief under 28 U.S.C. 2254, Defendant appealed to the Tenth Circuit court. In that appeal, the Court addressed Defendant's claim that his counsel had been ineffective in failing to investigate and present mitigation evidence at the sentencing stage of his trial. The Tenth Circuit vacated the district court’s judgment and remanded to give Defendant the opportunity to exhaust in state court the “far more specific and powerful” ineffective-assistance claim he had raised in his section 2254 application but had not previously presented to the OCCA. After the OCCA denied Defendant’s second application for state postconviction relief on procedural grounds, the federal district court determined that the OCCA’s procedural bars were valid and that Defendant had not overcome them by demonstrating cause and prejudice or a fundamental miscarriage of justice. Defendant appealed again to the Tenth Circuit seeking relief on his section 2254 claims or, at least, an evidentiary hearing on his ineffective-assistance claim. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court.
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