James v. Schriro, No. 08-99016 (9th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, a death row inmate, appealed the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner raised three grounds for relief: (1) petitioner claimed that the state failed to disclose an oral agreement with a co-defendant, in violation of Brady v. Maryland and Giglio v. United States; (2) petitioner claimed that the state failed to correct the co-defendant's false testimony denying the existence of this agreement, in violation of Napue v. Illinois; and (3) petitioner claimed that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance at the penalty phase in violation of Strickland v. Washington. The court affirmed the denial of relief with respect to petitioner's guilt-phase claims based on Brady, Giglio, and Napue. However, the court reversed on petitioner's penalty-phase claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, which was not decided on the merits in state court. The court concluded that counsel's complete failure to investigate and present mitigating evidence of petitioner's troubled childhood, his mental illness, and his history of chronic drug abuse constituted deficient performance. The court further concluded that this failure prejudiced petitioner. Therefore, the court granted the writ with respect to petitioner's death sentence.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on February 29, 2012.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on October 25, 2013.
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