Opinion ID: 155680
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Church Activity

Text: Mr. Duvall asserts that Mr. Prince should have presented evidence of his recent church attendance and his relationship with Wanda and Joe Howard. At the evidentiary hearing, the Howards testified that Mr. Duvall had begun attending church on a regular basis in the two months preceding the murder. Mr. Prince testified that Mr. Duvall contended that he was trying to turn his life around and that Mr. Duvall and his son had attended church within the couple of weeks preceding the murder, but Mr. Prince admitted that he did not interview Joe or Wanda Howard regarding Mr. Duvall’s recent church activity. Although Mr. Prince admitted that such evidence might have constituted a mitigating circumstance, he explained why he did not investigate the matter more fully or present this line of defense: I think it would have been rather difficult. Because at the same time frame that he was supposedly trying to turn his life around was when he went over to Connie McKinney’s, the lady next door, and tried to assault his wife just a week or two before the murder. So this was during the same time frame that he was supposedly turning his life around. Evid. Hear. at 77. In our view, Mr. Prince acted reasonably in concluding that this line of defense did not require further investigation. The record indicates that the prosecution likely would have questioned Wanda and Joe Howard about their knowledge of Mr. Duvall’s long history of drug and alcohol abuse, his tendency - 24 - toward violence when drunk, and his prior physical abuse of Karla. Furthermore, Mr. Duvall’s behavior during the weeks preceding Karla’s murder belied the sincerity of his alleged reform. Mr. Prince’s decision not to present evidence of Mr. Duvall’s turnaround was reasonable because of the substantial risk that this highly disputable evidence would lead directly to the introduction of evidence with a negative impact that would far outweigh any mitigating effect.