Opinion ID: 1223860
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The requirements of Strickland

Text: Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), requires that a defendant raising an ineffective-assistance claim show both that counsel performed deficiently and that the defendant was prejudiced by counsel's deficient performance. Id. at 687-91. In order to demonstrate deficient performance, Thompson must show that his appellate counsel made an objectively unreasonable decision to raise other issues instead of raising a Blakely claim, meaning that [the Blakely claim] `was clearly stronger than issues that counsel did present.' See Webb v. Mitchell, 586 F.3d 383, 399 (6th Cir.2009) (quoting Smith v. Robbins, 528 U.S. 259, 285, 288, 120 S.Ct. 746, 145 L.Ed.2d 756 (2000)). Thompson must also show prejudice, which in the appellate context means showing a reasonable probability that, but for his counsel's unreasonable failure to raise a Blakely claim on appeal, he would have prevailed. See Robbins, 528 U.S. at 285, 120 S.Ct. 746. Furthermore, when reviewing the actions of appellate counsel, [a] fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time. Smith v. Murray, 477 U.S. 527, 536, 106 S.Ct. 2661, 91 L.Ed.2d 434 (1986) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052).