Opinion ID: 1094862
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Performance Prior to Trial

Text: Cole contends his lawyer's performance fell below minimum acceptable standards when he failed to investigate his mental capacity, i.e., Cole's low intelligence quotient, and develop this matter for use in assailing the voluntariness of his confession and as a mitigating circumstance. The facts, however, demonstrate that defense counsel, Davey Tucker, did investigate Cole's mental capacity by filing a petition for mental examination and evaluating the results. The report indicated that Cole was competent to stand trial and criminally responsible for his actions. However, it did not show that the evaluators found his I.Q. to be 59, a fact not known by defense counsel throughout the trial. [A] strategic decision to pursue less than all plausible lines of defense will rarely, if ever, be deemed ineffective if counsel first adequately investigated the rejected alternative. Adams v. Wainwright, 709 F.2d 1443, 1445 (11th Cir.1983) (quoting Washington v. Strickland, 693 F.2d 1243, 1253-54 (5th Cir.1982)). Defense counsel was the one responsible for requesting the mental examination of Cole. The issue becomes whether Tucker was ineffective for failing to conduct further investigation of Cole's psychological profile which would have revealed the I.Q. information. A defendant who alleges that trial counsel's failure to investigate constituted ineffectiveness must also state with particularity what the investigation would have revealed and specify how it would have altered the outcome of trial, Nelson v. Hargett, 989 F.2d 847 (5th Cir.1993), or how such additional investigation would have significantly aided his cause at trial. Merritt v. State, 517 So.2d 517, 518 (Miss. 1987). An interview with the doctors at the state hospital would have revealed the I.Q. information. Nonetheless, Cole fails to demonstrate how it would have significantly aided his defense. Counsel, of course, did place emphasis on the fact that Cole had only a third grade education and could neither read nor write. These facts were brought home to the jury, and to the trial court on the motion to suppress the confession, even if Cole's numerical I.Q. was not. With respect to Cole's confession, this Court has concluded that many mentally deficient defendants have had the capacity to knowingly waive constitutional rights. Kniep v. State, 525 So.2d 385 (Miss. 1988); Johnson v. State, 511 So.2d 1360 (Miss. 1987); Jones v. State, 461 So.2d 686 (Miss. 1984); Neal v. State, 451 So.2d 743 (Miss. 1984); Billiot v. State, 454 So.2d 445 (Miss. 1984); Gator v. State, 402 So.2d 316 (Miss. 1981); Lee v. State, 338 So.2d 399 (Miss. 1976). Hindsight, of course, is always 20/20. It is easy to criticize counsel with the aid of backfocal lenses. However, the lack of I.Q. evidence does not reasonably undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial in light of the circumstances of this case. The Fifth Circuit concluded in the case of Celestine v. Blackburn, 750 F.2d 353, 357 (5th Cir.1984) that the evidence of appellant's I.Q. would not have been significant in light of the defense's argument that the appellant had other psychological problems and an underprivileged background. See Willie v. Maggio, 737 F.2d 1372 (5th Cir.1984) (concluding that counsel was not ineffective for omitting additional evidence of defendant's troubled adolescence since jury was already aware of this fact from other sources). Similarly, Cole's attorney argued that Cole had very minimal education and a deprived childhood. The jury knew about Cole's lack of education, and his numerical I.Q. does not alter the existence of the four aggravating circumstances found by the jury. While it may have been additional evidence of Cole's mental aptitude, we do not find a reasonable probability in this case that numerical evidence of Cole's low intelligence quotient would have changed the jury's conclusion that he should suffer death for his transgression. Accordingly, counsel was not constitutionally ineffective for any failure to further pursue this line of defense. An evidentiary hearing is not necessary where the allegations in a petition for post-conviction relief are specific and conclusory. Celestine, 750 F.2d at 358. An evidentiary hearing in this case will not reveal anything which has not been adequately presented in Cole's petition. Therefore, Cole is not entitled to relief under this portion of his petition.