Opinion ID: 885360
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Failure to give a closing argument.

Text: ś 111 Dawson contends that his counsel were ineffective because they did not give a closing argument at trial. ś 112 At the evidentiary hearing to consider Dawson's petition for postconviction relief, Allen Beck testified as follows: Q. Why was no closing argument presented by the defense at the trial? .... A. Those are the opinions that I recall. The opening argument by Mr. Paxinos was basically an outline of the evidence. It wasn't inflammatory. There really wasn't much to rebut. Secondly, as I indicated before, I noticed Harold Hanser's position, attitude. Having tried cases with him before, I was pretty sure that he was going to come in and tie everything together in a relatively emotive fashion. And part of that related to sexual paraphernalia. David, through the course of our investigation, seemed to me to be sensitive about the sexual paraphernalia and the intimations that the State was obviously going to make about it. So during the course of Mr. Paxinos' closing, I passed a note to-by David, who was sitting next to me-to Gary and said that I'd never failed to make a closing argument before, but perhaps this was a case we should consider it. The notes went back and forth. At the close of the opening part of the State's argument and before my argument, I asked for a recess. It was granted. We went into a caucus. The defense team and David Dawson discussed the pros and cons of making a closing argument. David was in favor of not making a closing argument and we did not. .... Q. Did you have a strong closing argument to give at the time that you made this decision? A. At that stage of the trial, no. There were a few fragmentary facts that we would collect ... but basically it would have been an argument which would have discussed what was in the instructions. There's the presumption of innocence, burden of proof and beyond a reasonable doubt. ś 113 The District Court concluded that: The strategy reasons outlined by Beck for not making a closing argument were reasonable trial strategy. Such strategy was successful in that the more experienced county attorney was precluded from making an argument which would tie all elements together and possibly include references to sexual paraphernalia that were not made in the opening argument by the less experienced deputy county attorney. ś 114 Though closing argument is often an invaluable tool as it serves to sharpen and clarify the issues for resolution by the trier of fact in a criminal case, an attorney's decision to waive closing argument does not per se constitute ineffective assistance. State v. Lee (1984), 142 Ariz. 210, 689 P.2d 153, 160 (internal citation omitted). We agree with the Supreme Court of Arizona's reasoning as set forth in Lee : We will not inquire into the advisability of waiver of closing argument as a ground for ineffective assistance where waiver was a reasoned election of a trial strategy. However, where trial counsel's decision to waive closing argument is unreasonable in that it is below the threshold of what minimally competent defense counsel would do under a given set of circumstances, counsel's conduct will not escape judicial scrutiny. State v. Lee, 689 P.2d at 161. ś 115 We conclude that under the circumstances, Dawson's counsel's decision to not give a closing argument was a reasonable trial strategy and did not fall below the standard of what a minimally competent defense attorney would have done in the same circumstances. Therefore, we conclude that the District Court did not err when it concluded that Dawson's counsel were not ineffective when they decided not to give a closing argument. ś 116 Accordingly, we conclude that the District Court did not err when it found that Dawson did not receive ineffective assistance of counsel at the trial phase.