Opinion ID: 171587
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Trial Counsel's Failure to Request an Ake Expert for the Mitigation Stage of Trial

Text: Petitioner argues that attorney Cantrell provided ineffective assistance because it was unreasonable not to request a mental health expert pursuant to Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 84 L.Ed.2d 53 (1985), for the mitigation phase of the trial. Aplt. Br. 18. In Ake, the Supreme Court held that when a defendant demonstrates to the trial judge that his sanity at the time of the offense is to be a significant factor at trial, the State must, at a minimum, assure the defendant access to a competent psychiatrist. Ake, 470 U.S. at 83, 105 S.Ct. 1087. As to the specific context of the mitigation stage of trial, the Supreme Court said that the State must provide a psychiatric expert when the State presents psychiatric evidence of the defendant's future dangerousness. Id. The Supreme Court ultimately concluded that, because the defendant was not provided a psychiatric expert, the defendant was wrongfully denied the means to rebut the State's proffered psychiatric evidence of future dangerousness. Id. Petitioner argues that the Ake right extends beyond the right to have the trial court provide an expert when the State is presenting psychiatric evidence of the defendant's future dangerousnesseven though the facts of Ake only addressed that narrow circumstanceand creates a right to an expert when any evidence of future dangerousness is introduced. Aplt. Br. 21-28. Therefore, according to Petitioner's argument, counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to make a request for an Ake expert even though the State did not present psychiatric evidence of future dangerousness. Id. As a preliminary matter, it should be noted that the OCCA found that this ineffective assistance claim was barred because it was not raised on direct appeal. Smith, No. PC-1997-1656, slip op. at 4. The federal district court, on the other hand, found that this ineffective assistance of counsel claim was not barred because it requires consideration of matters outside the trial record. See Smith, 2005 WL 1185815, at . The district court was correct in finding that our cases compel the conclusion that ineffective assistance claims requiring consideration of matters outside the trial record are not procedurally barred for failure to raise the issue on direct appeal. See Cargle v. Mullin, 317 F.3d 1196, 1212 (10th Cir.2003); Spears v. Mullin, 343 F.3d 1215, 1252 (10th Cir. 2003); Revilla v. Gibson, 283 F.3d 1203, 1220 (10th Cir.2002); Sallahdin v. Gibson, 275 F.3d 1211, 1234 (10th Cir.2002). The state procedural bar is adequate only where the defendant is represented by different counsel on appeal and (a) the ineffective assistance claim could be resolved solely on the direct appeal record or (b) the defendant could have expanded the record to demonstrate the ineffective assistance claim. Spears, 343 F.3d at 1252. We must bear in mind this court's previously expressed concerns about procedurally barring ineffective assistance claims that could not be developed on direct appeal. See Brecheen v. Reynolds, 41 F.3d 1343, 1363-64 (10th Cir.1994) (stating that the need to provide meaningful opportunity to develop a claim of ineffective assistance compels the conclusion that such claims can be brought for the first time collaterally); Osborn v. Shillinger, 861 F.2d 612, 623 (10th Cir.1988) (noting the need for additional fact-finding and the advice of separate counsel in an ineffective assistance claim). Therefore, we reach the merits of Petitioner's claim. [3] Given that the OCCA did not reach the merits of this allegation, our review is not bound by § 2254 deference. See Cargle, 317 F.3d at 1212. On the merits, Petitioner is correct insofar as he argues that the Tenth Circuit has stated in Liles v. Saffle, that the trial court should provide a psychiatric expert when the defendant's mental condition could be a significant mitigating factor and when the State presents any evidence, psychiatric or not, concerning future dangerousness. 945 F.2d 333, 341 (10th Cir. 1991). And in this case, the State did present evidence of future dangerousness as an aggravating factor. The complicating element here is that Petitioner's case was heard and he was sentenced before Liles had been decided. Indeed, at the time, the Oklahoma courts had concluded that Ake was limited to cases where the State puts on expert psychiatric evidence to show future dangerousness. See Brewer v. State, 718 P.2d 354, 363-64 (Okla. Crim.App.1986); cf. Fitzgerald v. State, 972 P.2d 1157, 1169 & n. 43 (Okla.Crim. App.1998) (stating that Brewer has since been abrogated and Ake given a broader reading in Oklahoma courts). Petitioner argues that the state of the law at the time of his trial is irrelevant because this court later concluded that the state trial court in Brewer erred in denying the request for a mental health expert, even though Liles had not yet been decided at the time of that state trial. Aplt. Br. 22; see Brewer v. Reynolds, 51 F.3d 1519, 1529 (10th Cir. 1995). According to Petitioner, because we found that the state trial court erred in Brewer even though this court had not yet clearly held that Ake extended to situations where the State had not proffered psychiatric evidencethen counsel in this case must also have erred by failing to make an Ake claim. Aplt. Br. 22. However, Petitioner reads this court's opinion in Brewer to say something that it does not. Brewer dealt with a substantive Ake claim and held that the state trial court erred in denying a request for an Ake expert; it did not say that it would be unreasonable for an attorney to choose not to make a request for an Ake expert in the first place. See Brewer, 51 F.3d at 1529. The question of whether a trial court erred as a matter of law in denying an Ake request by a defendant in Petitioner's situation prior to Liles is different from the question of whether an attorney acts unreasonably in not making such a request, given the unfavorable state of the law at the time. Of course, the latter question is the question we confront under the Strickland ineffective assistance test. Indeed, in a factually indistinguishable situation, this court has found that it was not ineffective assistance to fail to make an Ake request prior to Liles when the State had not offered psychiatric evidence of future dangerousness. See Revilla, 283 F.3d at 1220-21 ([W]e cannot say counsel's failure to request an expert was professionally unreasonable in 1987, at a time when Ake itself did not establish the validity of such a request, state case law rejected it, and even this circuit's extension of Ake would not take place for several years.). Therefore, while it would be ineffective assistance to not make a request for an Ake expert today even if the State did not proffer psychiatric evidence, we have held that it was not ineffective assistance at the time and we follow that holding.