Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 470.0

529US2

Unit: $U46

[10-07-01 17:18:24] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 362 (2000)

395

Opinion of the Court

The trial judge analyzed the ineffective-assistance claim
under the correct standard; the Virginia Supreme Court
did not.

We are likewise persuaded that the Virginia trial judge
correctly applied both components of that standard to Wil-
ineffectiveness claim. Although he concluded that
liams’
counsel competently handled the guilt phase of the trial, he
found that their representation during the sentencing phase
fell short of professional standards—a judgment barely dis-
puted by the State in its brief to this Court. The record
establishes that counsel did not begin to prepare for that
phase of the proceeding until a week before the trial.
Id.,
at 207, 227. They failed to conduct an investigation that
would have uncovered extensive records graphically describ-
ing Williams’ nightmarish childhood, not because of any stra-
tegic calculation but because they incorrectly thought that
state law barred access to such records. Had they done so,
the jury would have learned that Williams’ parents had been
imprisoned for the criminal neglect of Williams and his sib-
lings,19 that Williams had been severely and repeatedly
beaten by his father, that he had been committed to the cus-
tody of the social services bureau for two years during his
parents’ incarceration (including one stint in an abusive fos-
ter home), and then, after his parents were released from
prison, had been returned to his parents’ custody.

19 Juvenile records contained the following description of his home:
“The home was a complete wreck. . . . There were several places on the
ﬂoor where someone had had a bowel movement. Urine was standing in
several places in the bedrooms. There were dirty dishes scattered over
the kitchen, and it was impossible to step any place on the kitchen ﬂoor
where there was no trash. . . . The children were all dirty and none of
them had on under-pants. Noah and Lula were so intoxicated, they could
not ﬁnd any clothes for the children, nor were they able to put the clothes
on them. . . . The children had to be put in Winslow Hospital, as four
of them, by that time, were deﬁnitely under the inﬂuence of whiskey.”
App. 528–529.