Opinion ID: 778749
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Performance of Counsel

Text: 62 Campbell argues that his trial counsel was ineffective in various aspects of his performance, including failing to object to the seating of a bank security guard as a juror; failing to call Campbell's brother as a witness to testify that he had regularly seen Campbell in Costa Rica between May and October of 1991, the period of the charged conspiracy; failing to introduce snapshots of Campbell in Costa Rica; failing to conduct an effective cross-examination of certain witnesses; and failing to object to the mention of Campbell's escape from jail. In order to establish a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must show (1) that his counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness judged by prevailing professional norms, and (2) that but for the deficiency, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the proceeding would have been different. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-88, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Both prongs of the test must be met in order for the defendant to prevail. Campbell has not met this test with respect to any of the challenged aspects of counsel's performance. 63 Jurors are presumed to be free of bias, see, e.g., United States v. Brown, 644 F.2d 101, 103-05 (2d Cir.) (bank employee not presumed to be biased with respect to a prosecution for robbery of a different branch of the same bank), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 881, 102 S.Ct. 369, 70 L.Ed.2d 195 (1981), and Campbell has made no showing that seating the bank security guard in this case was prejudicial. 64 Nor did Campbell make any showing that either photographs of him in Costa Rica or his brother's testimony that Campbell was in Costa Rica at various times would have materially advanced his defense. The government did not contend that Campbell was never in Costa Rica, but simply that he was present at the robberies in the United States on the dates alleged in the indictment. Most of the testimony of whose omission Campbell complains consisted of general statements that he had been in Costa Rica, apparently without pinpointing any particular date. In only one instance has Campbell pointed to testimony that placed him in Costa Rica on a day on which he was alleged to be in the United States committing a robbery, and that testimony was in fact put in evidence. 65 Finally, we see no substandard performance in counsel's cross-examination of the witnesses, which was intensive with respect to matters that tended to impeach their testimony, or in his decision to forgo objection to a witness's reference to Campbell's escape from jail rather than have a parade of government witnesses testify about the escape.