# Fugate v. Head

> Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit · August 16, 2001 · 261 F.3d 1206

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9415620

## Case

- **Full name:** Wallace M. FUGATE, III, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Frederick J. HEAD, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, Respondent-Appellee
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- **Decided:** August 16, 2001
- **Citations:** 261 F.3d 1206; 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 18505; 2001 WL 930557
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Birch
- **Judges:** Birch, Hull, Marcus
- **Cited by:** 128 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9415620

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- concluding that unconstitutional references to defendant’s silence were harmless because the references were “brief’ and the “prosecutor did not repeat the references, question other witnesses regarding them, or address them during closing argument”
- finding that the presumption that “counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance ... is even stronger when the reviewing court is examining the performance of an experienced trial counsel”

## Opinion text

BIRCH, Circuit Judge, concurring specially:
I concur without reservation in Parts IIV of the court’s opinion. Although I remain convinced that our court set the acceptable level of attorney assistance for preparation for the penalty phase of a capital case too low in Chandler v. United States, 218 F.3d 1305, 1343-44 (11th Cir.2000) (en banc) (dissent), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 121 S.Ct. 1217 , 149 L.Ed.2d 129 (2001), the panel majority has correctly applied that decision to the case at hand. Accordingly, I join Parts V and VI of the court’s opinion.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9415620. Public record. Not legal advice.