Higgins v. Cain, No. 11-30641 (5th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The district court subsequently granted defendant a certificate of appealability (COA) regarding his claim that his appellate counsel was ineffective in not raising three Batson-related arguments on direct appeal. The court concluded that defendant failed to show that the state habeas court was unreasonable in rejecting his failure-to-investigate argument and it was well within the bounds of judicial determination for the state court to conclude that appellate counsel could follow a strategy that did not require raising the Batson arguments on appeal. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's judgment denying habeas relief, concluding that the state court did not unreasonably apply clearly established federal law in rejecting the claim.
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.