Opinion ID: 805977
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to investigate functioning in prison

Text: Mr. Hooks asserts that counsel was deficient for failing to investigate his “adaptive functioning during his fifteen year stay on death row,” which would have revealed that he had help writing the letters on which the State relied to show his communicative abilities and that he had not in fact participated in an allegedly improper scheme involving the use of the mails to solicit and obtain money from women that supposedly he describes in one of the letters. Aplt. Opening Br. at 67–68. With respect to letter-writing assistance, Mr. Hooks points to post-trial affidavits from fellow prisoners Walanzo Robinson and Paris Powell, both of whom state that they have assisted Mr. Hooks from time to time in reading and writing letters. See R., Vol. 1, pt. 2 at 435–36 (Aff. of Walanzo Robinson, dated Mar. 9, 2003); id. at 438–42 (Aff. of Paris Powell, dated Dec. 29, 2004). With respect to the scheme, Mr. Hooks points to prison records tending to show that he was not involved. See Aplt. Opening Br. at 67. The OCCA resolved this aspect of Mr. Hooks’s claim by concluding that he was not prejudiced by counsel’s failure in light of “other significant evidence bearing on Hooks’s intellectual and adaptive functioning.” Hooks Atkins Collateral, slip op. 10–12. We resolve this issue de novo under the first prong of Strickland. We “must indulge a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance,” and that “the challenged action ‘might be considered sound trial strategy.’” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689 (quoting Michel v. Louisiana, 350 U.S. 91, 101 (1955)). Mr. Hooks has not overcome that presumption -63- here. First, the referenced affidavits allege only generally that Messrs. Robinson and Powell assisted Mr. Hooks in writing letters from time to time. There is no evidence that these individuals assisted Mr. Hooks in writing the specific letters admitted into evidence at the Atkins trial. Second, while Mr. Hooks’s counsel has stated that she did not have time to investigate “fully” whether “Mr. Hooks had assistance from other inmates writing the letters,” R., Vol. 1, pt. 2 at 462 (Aff. of Vicki Werneke, dated Mar. 8, 2006), she did attempt at several points to cast doubt on whether Mr. Hooks had written the letters on his own, eliciting testimony from Dr. Cowardin that Mr. Hooks performed poorly on writing tests, had to use a straightedge to write, and had to use a dictionary to spell correctly. See 4 M.R. Tr. at 178–79, 184, 187–88. Finally, there is at least a suggestion that relying on testimony of fellow prisoners would have been not only fruitless, but also harmful. See Burger v. Kemp, 483 U.S. 776, 794 (1987) (holding that a limited investigation by counsel was reasonable because witnesses brought to counsel’s attention would have provided potentially damaging information). In one of the letters, Mr. Hooks seemingly referred to the scheme of his that was discovered. See State Ex. to M.R. 1 (Letter from Victor Hooks to Shalimar Hooks, dated Aug. 18, 2002) (“[T]hese damn ‘Hillbillies’ sweatin me. They cut my hustle off through the mail. . . . [C]ause this ‘one-stupid-white-bitch’, was sending me her money . . . .” (emphases omitted)). The trial transcript suggests that Mr. Hooks’s counsel was aware of the scheme and also suspected Mr. Hooks’s cell-mate of being involved. See 5 M.R. Tr. at 102 (cross-examination of Dr. Hall). A reasonable attorney could have -64- wanted to avoid drawing more attention to the letters than necessary and could have surmised that allowing fellow prisoners to testify might open them up to crossexamination about Mr. Hooks’s knowledge of their improper scheme. In that light, relying on objective testing of writing skills, such as that administered by Dr. Cowardin, would have been the sounder strategy. See 4 M.R. Tr. at 187–88. We therefore conclude that counsel’s performance was not unreasonable under Strickland.