Opinion ID: 2996109
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prejudice Under Strickland

Text: While we find that Holman’s attorney’s conduct was deficient, we have determined that Holman suffered no prejudice as a result. Holman would have been prejudiced if there was “a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694. Though Holman’s attorney conducted only cursory crossexamination of the prosecution’s witnesses and did not call any witnesses to rebut the prosecution’s case regarding Count I, it is difficult to imagine how he could have mounted an effective defense that would have challenged either Holman’s possession of the cocaine or his intent to sell it to Lawson. According to Lawson’s testimony and that of Tracy Broxon of the Fort Wayne Police Department, Lawson called Holman and told him she wanted to buy some crack from him. Holman told her to go to a certain gas station and call him for further instructions. Accompanied by Broxon and two other officers, Lawson went to the gas station as directed and called Holman again. 6 (...continued) Having indications of consent to a concession strategy appear on the record also helps prevent defendants from hiding their consultations with their attorneys behind the shield of direct appeal instead of having them come to light in the fuller investigative process of habeas corpus proceedings. See Agee, 83 F.3d 886 n.5; Robinson, 8 F.3d at 425. 14 No. 01-1535 Holman answered the phone and told her he was coming outside to meet her. When Holman was seen leaving a hotel across the street approaching Lawson, police officers arrested him and found the cocaine. While his attorney relentlessly pursued the idea that the police planted cocaine on Holman and in his car when they arrested him the second time, there is no indication that this strategy was feasible for Count I. In addition, Holman’s intent to sell the cocaine to Lawson would be very difficult to refute, since he did not leave the hotel until Lawson called and asked that the cocaine be delivered. We have no evidence of improper investigative techniques on the part of the police, nor do we have testimony from Holman that would undermine the government’s case. It is possible that Holman could argue that the concession of guilt to the first cocaine possession count tainted him, making the jury predisposed to thinking of him as a drug dealer when they considered the other counts, but the weight of the evidence suggests that this is a dubious argument at best. We find, in applying the prejudice prong of Strickland, that the strategy used by Holman’s attorney regarding Count I did not have a reasonable probability of affecting the trial’s outcome, see Strickland, 466 U.S. at 695; Simone, 931 F.2d at 1196, and affirm his conviction.