Opinion ID: 1903593
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The statement during closing arguments.

Text: ¶ 9. Pruitt first argues that his trial counsel was ineffective as a result of the following statement made during closing arguments: First of all, there's no question about where everybody lives and where the house is and all that came and stayed with his Aunt Nell the Thursday night before this happened. There's no question at all. There is a question as to when Michael Deas came there and why he came there. And I want to say this for sure: There was a killerthere is a killer in the courtroom either right now or that has been this week. Either John Pruitt killed that lady or Michael Deas killed that lady. It's just that simple; one of the two of them. It had to be one of the two. It had to be. No question about that; and that's why I want to look at both of them rather than just John Pruitt. Michael Deas was a transient handyman who worked for Nell Deronja in exchange for room and board for himself and his girlfriend. Deas and the girlfriend moved into the backroom of Deronja's home on the day of the murder, and Deas met Pruitt and shared a beer with him that morning. Deas testified that he saw Pruitt again later that afternoon but that Pruitt did not acknowledge his call. Deas spent the rest of that afternoon working by himself on a shed on Deronja's property which was near Easterling's house. Deas continued to work for Deronja for about a month after the murder. At the time of the trial, Deas was in jail in Cobb County, Georgia, on charges of violating his parole. ¶ 10. The record reflects that Deas was the only witness to physically place Pruitt near the scene of the crime, and Pruitt's attorney at trial went to great lengths to suggest to the jury that Deas himself was the killer and that Pruitt's jailhouse confession was coerced. Pruitt now argues basically that his attorney overplayed his hand, so to speak, by eliminating the possibility that some unidentified third person was the actual killer. While Pruitt may be correct in his assessment of his counsel's tactics, the argument at issue here still fails because it falls under the ambit of trial strategy. Further, focusing as much attention as possible on Deas, a transient ex-con who had only moved in that very day, would seem more effective than merely speculating about some unknown assailant. Therefore, this issue cannot support an ineffective assistance claim.