Opinion ID: 162747
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Overall Effectiveness of Mr. Le's Trial Counsel

Text: 123 The large amount of evidence against Mr. Le suggests that his trial counsel may not have had many viable strategies. The ones that seem obvious include: (1) requesting a self-defense instruction; (2) attempting to have the confession suppressed for lack of a knowing and intelligent waiver of Miranda rights; (3) introducing evidence to support a heat-of-passion or other, non-premeditated murder imperfect defense; and (4) focusing the jury on the factors mitigating against the imposition of the death penalty in the sentencing stage of the trial. As already discussed, the self-defense argument was rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals based on the lack of any evidence to support such an instruction. 124 As to these other possible strategies during the guilt phase, it is clear that trial counsel attempted to challenge Mr. Le's confession, and counsel made at least a minimal effort to pursue a heat-of-passion imperfect defense. Mr. Le's trial counsel also attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to get information about the purported $10,000.00 loan into evidence during the first stage of the trial without calling Mr. Le or cross-examining Mrs. Nguyen. Trial counsel also asked questions of witnesses during the course of the first stage that were apparently intended to support some kind of theory that involved implicating the Nguyens as participants in a narcotics operation of some kind. While there was no evidence whatsoever presented to support this proto-theory, at the least it shows that Mr. Le's counsel was attempting to advance other possible defenses. Additionally, it is apparent that counsel decided to focus on the sentencing phase of the trial. 125 In closing, we note that throughout the trial, Mr. Le's counsel objected to the answers of various witnesses and objected to questions asked by the prosecution. While with hindsight we might postulate that Mr. Le's counsel could have done a better job, the Court of Criminal Appeals' determination that Mr. Le received constitutionally sufficient assistance of trial counsel does not reveal an unreasonable application of federal law. Mr. Le's request for relief on this matter is denied.