Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 183

22 

WONG  v.  BELMONTES 

Per Curiam 

On  remand  from  this  Court,  the  Court  of  Appeals—ad­
dressing Belmontes’ ineffective assistance claim for the ﬁrst 
time—changed its view of this evidence.  Instead of ﬁnding 
Schick’s  mitigation  case  “substantial,”  as  it  previously  had, 
Belmontes,  350  F.  3d,  at  907,  the  Ninth  Circuit  this  time 
around labeled it “cursory,” 529 F. 3d, at 841, 861, n. 14, 866. 
Compare also Belmontes, 350 F. 3d, at 874, 901, 907 (labeling 
the mitigation evidence Schick presented “substantial”), with 
529 F. 3d, at 847, n. 3, 874 (labeling the same evidence “insub­
stantial”).  More  evidence,  the  Court  of  Appeals  now  con­
cluded,  would  have  made  a  difference;  in  particular,  more 
evidence  to  “humanize”  Belmontes,  as  that  court  put  it  no 
fewer than 11 times in its opinion.  Id., at 850, 859, 860, 862, 
863, 864, 865, and n. 18, 869, 872, 874.  The court determined 
that the failure to put on this evidence prejudiced Belmontes. 
There are two problems with this conclusion: Some of the 
evidence was merely cumulative of the humanizing evidence 
Schick  actually  presented;  adding  it  to  what  was  already 
there  would  have  made  little  difference.  Other  evidence 
proposed  by  the  Ninth  Circuit  would  have  put  into  play  as­
pects of Belmontes’ character that would have triggered ad­
mission  of  the  powerful  Howard  evidence  in  rebuttal.  This 
evidence  would  have  made  a  difference,  but  in  the  wrong 
direction for Belmontes.  In either event, Belmontes cannot 
establish Strickland prejudice. 

First,  the  cumulative  evidence.  In  the  Court  of  Appeals’ 
view, Belmontes should have presented more humanizing ev­
idence about Belmontes’ “difﬁcult childhood” and highlighted 
his  “positive  attributes.”  529  F.  3d,  at  864.  As  for  his 
difﬁcult  childhood,  Schick  should  have  called  witnesses  to 
testify  that  “when  Belmontes  was  ﬁve  years  old,  his  10­
month-old  sister  died  of  a  brain  tumor,”  that  he  “exhibited 
symptoms  of  depression”  after  her  death,  that  his  grand­
mother  suffered  from  “alcoholism  and  prescription  drug  ad­
diction,”  and  that  both  his  immediate  and  extended  family 
lived  in  a  state  of  “constant  strife.”  Ibid.  As  for  his  posi­