Opinion ID: 202184
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to Argue Effectively the Physical Evidence Relative to the Time of Death

Text: 58 Knight argues that his trial counsel failed to make sufficiently detailed and convincing arguments in support of the point that the state of the victim's body was consistent with death's having occurred on Friday night rather than earlier on Wednesday night. Counsel notes various aspects of the medical examiner's testimony which, had they been called to the jury's attention during closing argument, would or might have created a stronger case for the proposition that death had not occurred until the time consistent with the defense's alibi evidence. 59 The right to effective assistance extends to closing arguments, but counsel is allowed wide latitude with regard to which issues to sharpen and how best to clarify them. Yarborough, 540 U.S. at 5, 124 S.Ct. 1. The Supreme Court has made it clear that: 60 counsel has wide latitude in deciding how best to represent a client, and deference to counsel's tactical decisions in his closing presentation is particularly important because of the broad range of legitimate defense strategy at that stage. Closing arguments should sharpen and clarify the issues for resolution by the trier of fact, but which issues to sharpen and how best to clarify them are questions with many reasonable answers. 61 Id. (internal quotations and citations omitted). Courts are thus hesitant to find that an attorney's decision to leave out reference to particular aspects of the case in closing argument constitutes ineffective assistance. Id. The closing must also be viewed in the context of the entire proceeding. See, e.g., Bell v. Cone, 535 U.S. 685, 699-702, 122 S.Ct. 1843, 152 L.Ed.2d 914 (2002) (analyzing attorney's decision not to make a summation in relation to nature and timing of the expert witnesses' testimony). In the instant case, the SJC found very effective the cross-examination of the medical examiner by Knight's counsel, Knight, 773 N.E.2d at 403-04, and the district court wrote that, [g]iven this admonition [in Yarborough ], and the defense counsel's detailed cross-examination of the medical examiner as to the victim's time of death, the SJC properly applied the Strickland presumption that the trial strategy was within the bounds of reasonableness. Given the wide latitude of discretion available to defense counsel to conduct the defense in the manner of his or her own choosing, counsel's summation of the time of death evidence cannot be said to have established ineffective assistance within Strickland. 3 62