strategic-decision

14 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25-5898 Jeremiah Bobb v. United States Ninth Circuit 2025-10-15 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP child-witness constitutional-rights evidentiary-error ineffective-assistance sixth-amendment strategic-decision Where evidentiary legal error by a court combined with ineffective assistance of counsel led to the failure to place into trial evidence a prior denia…
25-5004 Delano Hale v. Bill Cool, Warden Sixth Circuit 2025-07-01 Denied IFP capital-murder criminal-defense forensic-evidence ineffective-assistance strategic-decision strickland-standard In a capital murder case, does defense counsel perform deficiently when they choose not to consult forensic experts without investigation, despite exp…
22-5523 Lawrence Gaines v. Morris Houser, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Benner Township, et al. Third Circuit 2022-09-08 Denied Response WaivedIFP appellate-review constitutional-rights criminal-procedure due-process habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel jury-instructions no-adverse-inference strategic-decision trial-counsel Whether the court of appeals erred in reversing the district court's decision that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the omission…
21-8137 David Lee Green v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections Eleventh Circuit 2022-06-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP 28-usc-2253 certificate-of-appealability criminal-procedure entrapment ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel miller-el-v-cockrell reasonable-jurists sixth-amendment strategic-decision undercover-operation Whether an attorney's decision to forego a viable defense can be considered 'strategic' if the attorney misunderstood the law
21-7456 Robert Earl Rowles v. Ricky D. Dixon, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2022-03-25 Denied IFP criminal-procedure effective-assistance-of-counsel evidentiary-hearing florida-law ineffective-assistance outcome-of-proceeding post-conviction reasonable-probability right-to-counsel sixth-amendment strategic-decision Whether a Petitioner who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole is denied his constitutional rights to counsel where counsel's r…
21-1080 Jacky Scott Garrett v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division Fifth Circuit 2022-02-04 Denied capital-murder constitutional-review extraneous-offense-evidence habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prejudice prejudicial-error standard-of-review strategic-decision trial-strategy Whether trial counsel's inadvertent act was 'strategic'
21-938 Bryan P. Stirling, Director, South Carolina Department of Corrections, et al. v. Sammie Louis Stokes Fourth Circuit 2021-12-23 GVR Relisted (2) capital-punishment fourth-circuit habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mitigation-evidence prejudice-analysis procedural-default strategic-decision strickland-standard strickland-v-washington Whether the Fourth Circuit violated Strickland v. Washington in its prejudice analysis
20-5155 Charles E. Coughlin v. United States District of Columbia 2020-07-23 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP 28-usc-2255 constitutional-right constitutional-rights district-court-discretion evidentiary-hearing expert-witness ineffective-assistance-of-counsel medical-expert-witnesses strategic-decision unreasonable-determination Whether the court of appeals erred in denying petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel
19-7994 David Armondo Butler v. Florida Florida 2020-03-16 Denied Response WaivedIFP adversarial-conflict Confrontation-Clause criminal-procedure Due-Process effective-assistance-of-counsel evidence-preservation Evidentiary-Issues Fourteenth-Amendment ineffective-assistance prior-acts-of-violence prosecutorial-misconduct sixth-amendment sixth-amendment-right-to-counsel strategic-decision video-footage Was court-appointed counsel's decision not to seek video footage of alleged victim's prior acts of violence a violation of the Sixth Amendment right t…
19-5592 Dawud Spaulding v. Ohio Ohio 2019-08-15 Denied IFP capital-defendant capital-punishment defense-counsel due-process evidence ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel legal-presumption post-conviction post-conviction-proceedings record record-evidence standard-of-review strategic-decision strategic-decision-making Should courts presume defense counsel acted strategically, even when the evidence in the record demonstrates a lack of strategy in their actions?
18-9065 Charlene Terry-Ann Walker Rosa v. Florida, et al. Eleventh Circuit 2019-05-01 Denied Response WaivedIFP civil-rights criminal-procedure due-process fundamental-rights ineffective-assistance-of-counsel ineffective-counsel sixth-amendment strategic-decision strickland-v-washington Whether petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is governed by the applicable test of Strickland v. Washington
18-8464 Oscar Lamar Mims v. United States Eighth Circuit 2019-03-19 Denied Response WaivedIFP 2255-motion certificate-of-appealability commerce-clause habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance-of-counsel speedy-trial strategic-decision strickland-standard suspension-of-writ writ-of-review Does the Certificate of Appealability process weaken the efficacy of the Writ, either to the point of working a Suspension of the Writ or of making §2…
18-7888 Furn-Lee Salomon v. Patrick Nogan, Administrator, East Jersey State Prison, et al. Third Circuit 2019-02-11 Denied IFP constitutional-safeguards criminal-procedure cumulative-error due-process evidentiary-hearing ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel passport-fraud pre-trial-investigation prejudicial-testimony pretrial-investigation strategic-decision strickland-standard strickland-v-washington trial-counsel witness-testimony Was trial counsel ineffective?
18-671 Kurt Robert Smith v. Anna Valentine, Warden Sixth Circuit 2018-11-26 Denied Response Waived 28-usc-2254 aedpa federal-law federal-review habeas-corpus ignorance-of-law ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel legal-ignorance reasonable-counsel strategic-decision Must a court reviewing counsel's failure to investigate first determine whether the basis for the failure was counsel's ignorance of the law, or anoth…