Opinion ID: 1640733
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: whether appellate counsel failed to preserve a federal issue related to a lesser-offense instruction.

Text: ¶ 54. Here, Howell raises two claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Howell first maintains that, although his attorneys at trial and on appeal raised issues related to a lesser-offense instruction, they failed to raise a federal claim along with those issues. This Court addressed in detail whether Howell was entitled to a lesser-offense instruction on simple (non-capital) murder or manslaughter and found that such an instruction was not supported by the evidence. Howell v. State, 860 So.2d at 741-744. After the United States Supreme Court granted Howell's petition for certiorari, that Court found that Petitioner's brief in the State Supreme Court did not properly present his claim as one arising under federal law. Howell v. Mississippi, 543 U.S. 440, 443, 125 S.Ct. 856, 160 L.Ed.2d 873 (2005). The United States Supreme Court then dismissed the petition. ¶ 55. Howell maintains that, in not raising a federal claim, his attorneys were constitutionally ineffective. In showing that his attorneys failed to raise a federal issue which would have been reviewable in the Supreme Court or other federal courts, Howell has made a facial showing that counsel's performance was deficient. But the second prong of the Strickland test requires a showing that the deficient performance by the attorneys also prejudiced the defense. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. In the direct appeal, this Court found that under Mississippi law and the evidence presented at trial, Howell was not entitled to a lesser-offense instruction. Even after further review of Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980), this Court finds that no lesser-offense instruction was required. In Beck, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the death sentence may not be imposed after a jury verdict of guilty of a capital offense where the jury was not permitted to consider a verdict of guilt of a lesser offense. See Goodin v. State, 787 So.2d 639, 655 (Miss. 2001). This Court has held Beck to be inapplicable to this state's statutory capital-murder sentencing scheme where the sentence is untied to the conviction and the jury is entitled to sentence a convicted defendant to death, life without parole, or life with parole. Id. See also Jackson v. State, 684 So.2d 1213, 1228 (Miss.1996). [2] ¶ 56. In the end, we find that Howell has not shown that his attorneys were constitutionally ineffective as to this issue and thus this issue is without merit.