Walker v. McQuiggan, No. 10-1198 (6th Cir. 2011)
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Petitioner, convicted of the first degree murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, unsuccessfully sought a writ of habeas corpus (28 U.S.C. 2254), arguing that counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing present an insanity defense, despite knowledge of petitioner's long, well-documented history of severe mental illness. The Sixth Circuit reversed The Michigan Court of Appeals unreasonably applied clearly established federal law and unreasonably determined facts. That court acknowledged that counsel did not sufficiently investigate the insanity defense by obtaining an independent evaluation to rebut that provided by the forensic center, but instead relied on a self-defense strategy that was contradicted by the evidence. The court improperly looked at petitioner's actions after the shooting, rather than his state of mind at the moment of the offense, resulting in "a thinly veiled and unsupportable conclusion that it simply did not believe" that petitioner was legally insane, a factual issue that it should not have addressed. There is an "overwhelming probability" that knowledge of petitioner's history would have shed a different light on testimony that petitioner killed a complete stranger with minimal or no provocation, but then testified clearly and consistently that he believed the victim was trying to kill him and did shoot him.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on August 16, 2013.
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