Opinion ID: 2977007
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Use a Mitigation Specialist

Text: We also conclude that Jells’s counsel were ineffective in failing to use a mitigation specialist who would have gathered information about Jells’s educational, medical, psychological, and social background necessary to prepare a proper mitigation defense. In a post-conviction affidavit, Dr. Susan Shorr, a mitigation specialist for the Cuyahoga County Public Defender’s Office, stated that Jells’s trial counsel initially requested her assistance but “never followed through on their request by formally involving [her] in the case.” Had her assistance—which she was willing to give—been obtained, she would have gathered evidence pertaining to Jells’s “developmental experiences,” “family dynamics and functioning,” “academic capacities and concomitant academic success or failure,” “interpersonal relationships and social adjustments,” “history of drug and alcohol abuse,” and general “psychological functioning.” Similarly, Dr. Eisenberg testified that Jells’s trial counsel did not appear to have consulted with any mitigation specialist or to have gathered the evidence that such a specialist would typically collect. In fact, Dr. Eisenberg testified that he could not recall ever having been involved in a mitigation case where he was provided absolutely no school records, medical records, psychological test results, or any social history to evaluate. Dr. Eisenberg stated that he not only never met with No. 02-3505 Jells v. Mitchell Page 11 a mitigation specialist, but that the necessary information that is generally gathered by such a specialist was never presented to him. Jells confirms that no mitigation specialist was used in his case. In his affidavit, Jells states that he was never visited by anyone “who could assist [his] attorneys in preparing for mitigation. There were no mitigation specialists or investigators who visited or talked with [him] concerning [his] case or mitigation.” Due to the absence of a mitigation specialist, Jells “was unable to provide [his attorneys] with any background concerning [himself] or to assist in the mitigation phase of [his] trial.” In the context of Jells’s case, his counsel’s failure to employ a mitigation expert who would have fully investigated Jells’s educational, social, and psychological background was objectively unreasonable. In Williams v. Taylor, the Supreme Court found counsel ineffective where they failed to interview all available witnesses and failed to present evidence of “mistreatment, abuse, and neglect during [the defendant’s] early childhood, as well as testimony that he was ‘borderline mentally retarded,’ had suffered repeated head injuries, and might have mental impairments organic in origin.” 529 U.S. at 370. The Supreme Court held that defendants have “a right—indeed a constitutionally protected right—to provide the jury with the mitigating evidence that his trial counsel either failed to discover or failed to offer.” Id. at 393. Similarly, in Wiggins v. Smith, the defendant was found to have been deprived of competent counsel when his “counsel abandoned their investigation of [his] background after having acquired only rudimentary knowledge of his history from a narrow set of sources.” 539 U.S. at 524. In Wiggins, counsel obtained the Presentence Investigation Report and records kept by the department of social services and procured a psychological investigation prior to trial. The Supreme Court held that “[c]ounsel’s decision not to expand their investigation beyond the [Presentence Investigation Report] and the [Department of Social Services] records fell short of the professional standards” that prevailed at that time, which required the preparation of a social history report, and below the standards promulgated by the American Bar Association, “standards to which we have long referred as ‘guides to determining what is reasonable.’” Id. (citing Strickland, at 466 U.S. at 688; Williams, 529 U.S. at 396). There, “[t]he scope of their investigation was also unreasonable in light of what counsel actually discovered in the [Department of Social Services] records,” which revealed evidence of alcoholism and neglect on the part of Wiggins’ mother. Id. at 525. The Court held that “any reasonably competent attorney would have realized that pursuing these leads was necessary.” Id. See also Rompilla, 545 U.S. at 382 (holding that counsel had a duty to examine Rompilla’s school records and incarceration records and to look for evidence of a history of dependence, as discovered information could have an “extenuating significance”). While Jells’s counsel did not have a specific obligation to employ a mitigation specialist, they did have an obligation to fully investigate the possible mitigation evidence available. See, e.g., Williams, 529 U.S. at 397. Under Ohio law, the range of potential mitigation evidence is quite broad. To determine whether a sentence of death is appropriate, the Ohio death penalty statute provides that a three-judge panel must weigh against the aggravating factors, “the nature and circumstances of3 the offense, the history, character, and background of the offender” and other relevant factors. Ohio Rev. Code § 2929.04(B) (emphasis added). Ohio law also give defendants 3 These other relevant factors include: (1) Whether the victim of the offense induced or facilitated it; (2) Whether it is unlikely that the offense would have been committed, but for the fact that the offender was under durress, coercion, or strong provocation; (3) Whether, at the time of committing the offense, the offender, because of a mental disease or defect, lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of the offender’s conduct or to conform the offender’s conduct to the requirements of the law; (4) The youth of the offender; No. 02-3505 Jells v. Mitchell Page 12 “great latitude in the presentation of evidence of [mitigation] factors.” Ohio Rev. Code § 2929.04(C). Thus, to provide professionally competent assistance in Ohio capital cases, defense counsel must conduct a reasonably thorough investigation into all possible mitigation evidence that would present a sympathetic picture of the defendant’s family, social, and psychological background. See Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 524 (noting that, according to ABA standards, “among the topics counsel should consider presenting are medical history, educational history, employment and training history, family and social history, prior adult and juvenile correctional experience, and religious and cultural influences”); Carter v. Bell, 218 F.3d 581, 596-97 (6th Cir. 2000) (concluding that defense counsel’s failure to investigate the defendant’s “family, social or psychological background . . . constituted representation at a level below an objective standard of reasonableness”). Jells’s counsel failed to fulfill their duty to investigate Jells’s background prior to the mitigation hearing. That Jells’s counsel conducted some investigation of Jells’s background is evident from their limited presentation of Jells’s unstable childhood and academic difficulties during the mitigation hearing. However, while counsel generally has the discretion to determine that further investigation into available mitigating evidence is unnecessary, see Strickland, 466 U.S. at 699-700, counsel’s awareness of Jells’s unstable home environment and academic difficulties should have alerted them that further investigation by a mitigation specialist might proved fruitful. See Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 524-25 (finding counsel ineffective for having “abandoned their investigation of petitioner’s background after having acquired only rudimentary knowledge of his history from a narrow set of sources” and critiquing counsel for not pursuing leads discovered during his minimal investigation); Harries, 417 F.3d at 638 (critiquing counsel for “declin[ing] to seek the assistance of a mental health expert or conduct a thorough investigation of [petitioner’s] mental health, even after [petitioner’s] mother alerted them that [petitioner] suffered from mental illness”).