Opinion ID: 206501
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Physician Testimony Claim

Text: Jewett also pursues his claim that his appellate counsel was ineffective in failing to raise a claim on appeal that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to object to admission of improper physician testimony that the victim was sexually assaulted. The SJC agreed with Jewett on direct appeal that this evidence was improperly admitted, but found, as we have discussed, that its admission did not create a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice, the standard applied by the SJC to unpreserved errors. Jewett, 813 N.E.2d at 463. Jewett has not shown that it was unreasonable for the full SJC to reject his claim that without the improper testimony, his trial might have a different result, the predicate for his ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim. Jewett's argument that the evidence of guilt apart from the improper physician testimony was weak is refuted by the SJC's summary of why that erroneous physician evidence would have made no difference. The SJC reasonably concluded that the murder conviction was based on evidence showing that Jewett was the last person to see the victim alive and had behaved strangely in the following days, that the victim had been strangled, that eyewitnesses had seen Jewett's car in the middle of the night in the area where the body was found, that Jewett had sexual intercourse with the victim shortly before her death, and that Jewett had confessed to Obershaw that he had killed her. See Jewett, 813 N.E.2d at 463. And the rape conviction was strongly supported by Jewett's unequivocal jailhouse confession, as well as by the disarray of the victim's corpse. See id. at 463. Nor were the full SJC and the gatekeeper unreasonable in rejecting the claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. The issue was briefed to the SJC on direct appeal, albeit belatedly, which court, we presume, found it to be without merit. See Harrington, 131 S.Ct. at 784-85 (stating that state court is presumed to have denied a claim on its merits absent any signal to the contrary).