Opinion ID: 159988
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Competency Trial

Text: 27 In addition to challenging the trial court's use of an unconstitutional burden of proof, Mr. McGregor argues that his competency trial was fundamentally unfair because the trial court improperly admitted hearsay and opinion testimony. However, because this court reviews Mr. McGregor's competency claim as if there had never been a competency trial, see, e.g., Van Woudenberg, 211 F.3d at 567 n.5, we do not need to address most of these additional challenges to the propriety of the competency proceedings. 28 Mr. McGregor does assert that his trial attorney provided ineffective representation during the competency trial by failing to obtain and present psychiatric evidence in support of his claim of incompetence. We address this argument because it could implicate additional evidence that might create a bona fide doubt as to his competency. 29 The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals deemed Mr. McGregor to have procedurally defaulted this claim because he failed to raise it on direct appeal, noting this claim did not depend on facts outside the appellate record. See McGregor, 935 P.2d at 335. Because he was represented by different attorneys at trial and on appeal, the adequacy of this state procedural bar to preclude habeas review turns on whether Mr. McGregor could have developed the factual basis of this claim on direct appeal. See English v. Cody, 146 F.3d 1257, 1263 (10th Cir. 1998). Review of the prejudice prong of this ineffective assistance of counsel claim, see Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 695 (1984), requires consideration of the evidence trial counsel could have obtained and presented. See Williams, 120 S. Ct. at 1515; see also, e.g., Cooks v. Ward, 165 F.3d 1283, 1296 (10th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 120 S. Ct. 94 (1999). Because that information would have been outside the trial record, this state procedural bar is not adequate to preclude federal habeas review. See English, 146 F.3d at 1263. 30 Addressing the merits of this claim, however, Mr. McGregor fails to assert any specific additional evidence counsel could have obtained and presented. He has, therefore, failed to establish the requisite prejudice stemming from any deficiency in counsel's performance. See Wallace v. Ward, 191 F.3d 1235, 1243-44 & 1244 n.6 (10th Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 120 S. Ct. 2222 (2000). 31