Opinion ID: 51486
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Motion for Continuance Prior to Trial

Text: Bower argues that Buckner should have asked for a continuance prior to trial in order to review and synthesize the large amount of evidence in this trial. Only seven months elapsed between the crime and the beginning of the trial. Bower believes that Buckner's failure to ask for a continuance was unreasonable because Buckner did not have enough time to prepare, as Buckner stated before the trial court [w]e've been furnished with thousands of pages of reports and there are hundreds of witnesses. And it's a very complicated case  would be a gross understatement. As discussed above and below, we find no deficiency in Buckner's preparation for trial. Additionally, we conclude from the record that taking the case to trial quickly was a strategic decision on Buckner's part. Because he employed a time/proximity defense and because the state had no physical evidence that could place Bower in Grayson County on the day of the murders, Buckner believed that taking the case to trial as quickly as possible was essential in order to rush the state in its preparation of the case and limit the amount of circumstantial evidence it could marshal. This court will not question a counsel's reasonable strategic decisions. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052 (An attorney's strategic choices are virtually unchallengeable.).