concluding that defendant had failed to carry his burden of establishing prejudice from counsel’s failure to introduce sufficient mitigating evidence; noting that “[a]ny attempt to portray petitioner as a nonviolent man would have opened the door for the State to rebut with evidence of petitioner’s prior convictions,” and explaining that “[t]his evidence had not previously been admitted in evidence,” but “trial counsel reasonably could have viewed it as particularly damaging” (emphasis added)
How later courts described this case
- concluding that defendant had failed to carry his burden of establishing prejudice from counsel’s failure to introduce sufficient mitigating evidence; noting that “[a]ny attempt to portray petitioner as a nonviolent man would have opened the door for the State to rebut with evidence of petitioner’s prior convictions,” and explaining that “[t]his evidence had not previously been admitted in evidence,” but “trial counsel reasonably could have viewed it as particularly damaging” (emphasis added)
- holding that the prosecutors’ improper statements did not warrant a new trial because “the prosecutors’ argument did not manipulate or misstate the evidence, nor did it implicate other specific rights of the accused such as the right to counsel or the right to remain silent” and because “[m]uch of the objectionable content was invited by or was responsive to the opening summation of the defense”
- holding that the prosecutors’ comments did not deprive pe titioner of a fair trial since “[t]he prosecutors’ argument did not manipulate or misstate the evidence, nor did it implicate other specific rights of the accused such as the right to counsel or the right to remain silent” and “[m]ueh of the objectionable content was invited by or was responsive to the opening summation of the defense”
- finding no due process violation where the prosecutor’s arguments contained highly inflammatory remarks, e.g., “[defendant] shouldn’t be out of his cell unless he has a leash on him and a prison guard at the other end of that leash” but did not “manipulate or misstate the evidence or implicate other specific rights of the accused ... such as the right to remain silent.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
Distinguished
Distinguished by State v. Sandy, 1994 Mo. App. LEXIS 1028 (1994)
However, in Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986), the Court held Caldwell was inapplicable to a prosecutor’s comment to the jury that a death sentence was the only way to prevent a similar future act.
The opinion
Justice Brennan,
dissenting.
I join my Brother Blackmun’s dissent. Moreover, adhering to my view that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 227 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting), I would vacate the death sentence imposed in this case.