Opinion ID: 206501
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Juror Bias Claim

Text: It would have been reasonable for the gatekeeper justice to conclude, by adopting the reasoning in the Commonwealth's opposition, that appellate counsel reasonably could have decided that Jewett's claim relating to the juror was utterly meritless. The trial judge immediately resolved the issue, and had wide discretion over whether to excuse jurors. Counsel's choice to focus an appellate brief on the strongest claims, omitting weak claims, might be considered sound ... strategy. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052 (quoting Michel v. Louisiana, 350 U.S. 91, 101, 76 S.Ct. 158, 100 L.Ed. 83 (1955)) (internal quotation marks omitted).