Gissendaner v. Seaboldt, No. 12-13569 (11th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, convicted of malice murder and sentenced to death, appealed the district court's denial of her 28 U.S.C. 2254 federal habeas petition. Petitioner convinced her on-again, off-again lover to kill her on-again, off-again husband. The court concluded that the district court correctly denied federal habeas relief on petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claim where the state court reasonably found that she had failed to carry her burden of demonstrating that she was prejudiced by counsel's advice during the plea process; correctly denied petitioner's Brady v. Maryland claim where the state habeas court reasonably found that further impeachment of petitioner's lover based on the undisclosed statements contained in the prosecution team's notes would not have created a reasonable probability of a different result in either phase of the trial; and correctly rejected petitioner's penalty phase claim of ineffective assistance of counsel where the state habeas court's finding that trial counsel conducted a constitutionally adequate mitigation investigation did not involve an unreasonable application of Strickland v. Washington or depend on an unreasonable finding of fact. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
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