Opinion ID: 163763
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Was Counsel's Performance Objectively Unreasonable?

Text: 37 With the contours of counsel's performance well in hand, we now turn to the question of whether such performance was deficient under Strickland. From Ms. Paine's perspective, the highest hurdle to clear on this issue is the presumption that her counsel acted reasonably and perhaps even strategically by not eliciting testimony about BWS from an expert. Such is the essential argument of the State on appeal. Aplee. Br. at 11, 14-15. As the following discussion shows, this hurdle is easily cleared. 38 As an initial matter, we think there can be little doubt from the record that Ms. Paine's counsel put a BWS theory in play. The State recognizes that Ms. Paine's counsel made a back-door attempt to use a BWS theory by trying to show that she was not only battered and abused, but was also an addicted, neglected and dependent person suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Aplee. Br. at 10-12. By back-door the State presumably refers to counsel's efforts to characterize Ms. Paine as suffering from more than just BWS. Furthermore, the State admits that the trial court gave the BWS-specific jury instruction on reasonableness. Id. at 10, 15. The OCCA requires that this instruction be given in all [BWS] cases, Bechtel, 840 P.2d at 11, so obviously the trial court viewed this case, based on the evidence before it, as a BWS case requiring the special instruction. See IV TT. at 140 (neither party objected to trial court's proposed jury instruction 33 which is the BWS-specific self-defense instruction, Okla. UJI-Cr 8-47); see also IV TT. at 34 (the trial court characterized the trial as one where the defense has been and has always been that [Ms. Paine] was a battered woman.). Essentially, the trial court and both parties at trial agreed that Ms. Paine was battered and that a BWS theory was put in play by her counsel. See Aplt. Br. at 17. 39 The State acknowledges, however, that Ms. Paine's counsel did not specifically ask her expert if Ms. Paine suffered from BWS, and did not ask the expert to explain BWS or the ramifications of BWS on the reasonableness of Ms. Paine's fear. Aplee. Br. at 10-11. And as we noted above, Ms. Paine's counsel made it very clear that the trial strategy did not include asking the expert to equip the jury with an understanding of BWS. III TT. at 31. The State also acknowledges that Ms. Paine's counsel labored extensively to establish that Ms. Paine's subjective fear was genuine. Aplee. Br. at 10, 12, 14-16, 17. However, the State points to not one instance of counsel attempting to establish the reasonableness of that fear in the context of Ms. Paine's being a BWS sufferer. E.g., Aplt. Br. at 19. In fact, counsel chose an expert that was not even qualified to render BWS testimony. See Aplt. Br. at 17; see also Bechtel, 840 P.2d at 9 (discussing such a requirement). 40 Given the OCCA's extensive focus on the key reasonableness component of a self-defense claim in a BWS case, Bechtel, 840 P.2d at 10-11, counsel's failure to offer expert BWS testimony to provide context for the jury on the reasonableness of Ms. Paine's subjective fear amounts to objectively unreasonable performance. Counsel failed to apply Bechtel and failed to recognize its core teaching that expert testimony about how BWS affected [Ms. Paine's] perceptions of danger, its imminence, what actions were necessary to protect herself and the reasonableness of those perceptions [were] relevant and necessary to prove self-defense. Id. at 10 (emphasis added). Without expert testimony about how a BWS sufferer views the world, a complete disconnect existed that prevented the jury from assessing the reasonableness of Ms. Paine's conduct based on the circumstances and from the viewpoint of the defendant, as Oklahoma law requires. Id. at 11 (quoting the specific self-defense jury instruction required for every BWS case). 41 Simply put, counsel failed to do something that the OCCA said was necessary to mount an effective self-defense claim given the jury's likely misconceptions about BWS. In Bechtel, the OCCA established the professional standard in Oklahoma for an attorney representing a battered woman claiming self-defense, i.e., the attorney must put on an expert to explain BWS to the jury. Recently, the Supreme Court concluded that an attorney's failure to follow standard practice to use state-provided funds for development of a social history report amounted to unreasonably deficient performance. Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. ___, ___, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 2536, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003) (relying solely on the testimony of the attorney to establish what constituted standard practice). In this case, the professional standard at issue is decidedly more established and clear than that relied on by the Supreme Court in Wiggins. Here, the OCCA itself announced the professional standard. For these reasons, we have little trouble concluding that counsel's performance fell short of the professional standard and was objectively unreasonable. 42 The State attempts to support its argument that counsel's decision was strategic by relying on an erroneous reading of Bechtel. It claims that by providing the subjective fear testimony through a PTSD expert, and therefore failing to put on a BWS expert, counsel strategically deprived the State of [] potentially damning evidence. Aplee. Br. at 15. The State argues that were a BWS defense pursued, Bechtel would mandate that the accused would have to submit to an examination by an expert of the State's choosing and that this expert could testify in rebuttal. Id. Unfortunately for the State, Bechtel does not say that. Bechtel does, however, mandate the following in a BWS case: 43 The defendant, who has submitted herself to psychological or psychiatric examination and who intends to use or otherwise rely on testimony resulting from said examination, may be ordered, at the discretion of the trial court, to submit to an examination by the State's expert witness, upon application of the State. The defendant's expert is permitted to be present and observe the examination. . . . Testimony of the State's witness shall be admitted only in rebuttal on matters covered by the expert for the defense and for the same purposes for which the defense expert's testimony was offered. 44 840 P.2d at 9 (emphasis added). It is obvious that the accused would not have to submit to an examination by a State expert unless (1) the State applied for it and (2) the trial court, in its discretion, allowed it. Here a BWS theory was in play and Ms. Paine's counsel did use an expert to examine her and to testify about her having PTSD (which can encompass BWS). Under Bechtel, this would entitle the State to apply to have its expert examine Ms. Paine, but it is not known whether the State even tried to do so. However, no faithful reading of Bechtel supports the State's argument that Ms. Paine's counsel somehow made a strategic decision not to offer expert BWS testimony because of the rights it would give the State. Simply put, the State had those rights any way. 45 Finally, the State also appears to argue that counsel's failure to offer expert BWS testimony and the failure to establish definitively that Ms. Paine was in fact a BWS sufferer was reasonable because Ms. Paine simply could not qualify as a battered woman. Aplee. Br. at 10, 15-16. In support of this argument, the State contends that there is no clearly documented pattern of abuse (i.e., medical treatment for abuse, calling the police, telling friends, etc.) and that Ms. Paine demonstrated a lack of fear and even physical aggression toward her husband. Id. at 13, 15-16. The State relies on certain witnesses who said they never heard her express fear but did hear her threaten her husband. Id. at 13-14. 46 This argument is specious and misses the point. As noted above, the State admits that the trial court gave the BWS-specific jury instruction on reasonableness as required by Bechtel in all [BWS] cases. Id. at 10, 15; Bechtel, 840 P.2d at 11. Given the evidence that Ms. Paine was battered, and the fact that the court and both parties at trial saw this as a BWS case, it simply makes no sense for the State to argue now that counsel somehow acted reasonably by failing to offer expert BWS testimony because Ms. Paine was not a battered woman. Having reviewed Bechtel and the record in this case, we conclude that counsel's performance was deficient and fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and that the OCCA's reliance on trial strategy to excuse counsel's performance is an unreasonable application of Strickland. 47