Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 192.0

Cite as: 558 U. S. 30 (2009) 

31 

Per Curiam 

sel failed to discover or present during the penalty phase of 
his trial in 1988. 

In  this  federal  postconviction  proceeding,  the  District 
Court held  that Porter’s lawyer’s  failure to adduce  that evi­
dence  violated  his  Sixth  Amendment  right  to  counsel  and 
granted  his  application  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The 
Court  of  Appeals  for  the  Eleventh  Circuit  reversed,  on  the 
ground that the Florida Supreme Court’s determination that 
Porter  was  not  prejudiced  by  any  deﬁcient  performance  by 
his  counsel  was  a  reasonable  application  of  Strickland  v. 
Washington,  466  U. S.  668  (1984).  Like  the  District  Court, 
we  are  persuaded  that  it  was  objectively  unreasonable  to 
conclude  there  was  no  reasonable  probability  the  sentence 
would  have  been  different  if  the  sentencing  judge  and  jury 
had  heard  the  signiﬁcant  mitigation  evidence  that  Porter’s 
counsel  neither  uncovered  nor  presented.  We  therefore 
grant the petition for certiorari in part and reverse the judg­
ment of the Court of Appeals.1 

I 

Porter was convicted of two counts of ﬁrst-degree murder 
for  the  shooting  of  his  former  girlfriend,  Evelyn  Williams, 
and  her  boyfriend,  Walter  Burrows.  He  was  sentenced  to 
death on the ﬁrst count but not the second. 

In July 1986, as his relationship with Williams was ending, 
Porter  threatened  to  kill  her  and  then  left  town.  When  he 
returned to Florida three months later, he attempted to see 
Williams, but her mother told him that Williams did not want 
to  see  him.  He  drove  past  Williams’  house  each  of  the  two 
days  prior  to  the  shooting,  and  the  night  before  the  murder 
he visited Williams, who called the police.  Porter then went 
to  two  cocktail  lounges  and  spent  the  night  with  a  friend, 
who  testiﬁed Porter  was  quite drunk  by  11 p.m.  Early  the 
next  morning, Porter  shot Williams  in her  house.  Burrows 

1 We deny the petition insofar as it challenges his conviction.