Opinion ID: 1351466
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Retest the Dried Stains

Text: Defendant's first petition for a writ of habeas corpus raises several claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Most of the issues raised are similar to those presented on appeal, and do not warrant a separate discussion. But defendant does raise two substantial claims worthy of being addressed independently. Because they both concern defense counsel's handling of the serological evidence against defendant, we have inserted a discussion of them at this point in the opinion. (23) Defendant claims ineffective assistance of counsel when defense counsel failed to independently test the dried stains that had been subject to electrophoretic testing by police technicians. Analyses of the dried blood, semen and saliva stains were used, as explained above, to place defendant in a group of 5 percent of the male population that could have committed the crime. Although, according to one of defense counsel's experts, Carol Rhodes, the stains could only have been retested up to ten months after they were deposited, counsel states in a declaration attached to the habeas corpus petition that he did not learn of such a time limit until one year after the murder. As explained above, ineffective assistance of counsel is found when there is (1) deficient performance by counsel as judged by prevailing professional norms and (2) a reasonable probability that, but for the deficient performance, the outcome of the trial would have been more favorable to defendant. The burden of proving ineffective assistance of counsel is with the defendant. ( People v. Ledesma, supra, 43 Cal.3d 171, 216-218; People v. Pope (1979) 23 Cal.3d 412, 425 [152 Cal. Rptr. 732, 590 P.2d 859, 2 A.L.R.4th 1].) We shall assume for argument's sake only that defendant has demonstrated deficient performance. He has not, however, demonstrated prejudice. More is required than a mere possibility that timely retesting might have yielded favorable evidence. There must be a reasonable probability that such evidence would have been produced. Defendant cannot make such a showing. He does not establish that the serological testing by the police in this case was inaccurate, or that his own tests were likely to produce a different result. Accordingly, we must conclude there was no ineffective assistance. To hold otherwise would be to establish a perverse system of incentives: defense counsel would have the choice of retesting physical evidence on some undetermined possibility that it might yield a result favorable to his client, or not retesting, with a high probability that any conviction of his client would therefore be overturned.