Opinion ID: 379476
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Duty to Investigate Accused's Contradictory Statements

Text: 179 The dissent contends that defense counsel are obligated to investigate contradictory statements by an accused. Dissent n.110. To apply that law here, an accused like Decoster who initially told his attorney that he was present at the scene of the robbery, but later contradicted himself and said that he was not present, would thereby force his counsel to conduct an independent investigation for evidence that might support either statement to determine which version should be presented as a defense. 63 This suggestion is incredible. It grossly overstates the duty to investigate and is symptomatic of the unreasonable duties that the dissent is attempting to foist on defense lawyers. Without any investigation, the defendant's contradictory statements are conclusive proof that one of them is false and defense counsel owes no duty to a prevaricating accused to straighten out an obviously crooked story. See Dissent nn.22, 49, 112, page --- of --- U.S.App.D.C., page 272 of 624 F.2d.