Opinion ID: 162747
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Counsel's Failure to Call Mr. Le As A Witness

Text: 106 Mr. Le also objects to his counsel's failure to call him as a witness during the guilt phase of the trial. Mr. Le contends that if he had been called, he would have been able to introduce evidence in support of his theory that he only came to Oklahoma City to reclaim the $10,000.00 he felt he was owed by the Nguyens. The Court of Criminal Appeals noted that regardless of whether Mr. Le intended to rob the Nguyens or simply to reclaim $10,000.00 that was allegedly his, sufficient evidence existed to show that Mr. Le formed the intent to murder Mr. Nguyen. See Le I, 947 P.2d at 557. The Court of Criminal Appeals also held that Mr. Le failed to show he was prejudiced by trial counsel's failure to raise this point. See id. 107 Had Mr. Le's trial counsel called him to the stand during the guilt stage of the trial, Mr. Le would have had to address the inconsistency in his initial statement to the police, which said nothing about the alleged business plan between Mr. Le and Mr. Nguyen. While Mr. Le rightly points out that this conflict had to be addressed anyway during the second stage when he raised the issue of the money, it is not beyond reason to imagine that his attorney deemed it better not to have Mr. Le impeached in a fundamentally-significant manner during the guilt stage of the trial. When a person is on trial for robbery and capital murder, among other charges, we do not think it an obviously incorrect trial strategy to avoid having the defendant impeached in this way. At the very least, under AEDPA, we cannot hold the Court of Criminal Appeals' ruling on this matter to be an unreasonable application of federal Sixth Amendment law. 108