Opinion ID: 51486
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Independent Investigator

Text: Bower argues that an independent investigator would have uncovered evidence that some of the victims were involved in gambling and trafficking illegal drugs. He believes that more investigation would have proven that the victims were actually killed during a drug deal gone wrong. Additionally, Bower points to affidavits before the district court of potential witnesses willing to testify to the identities of other suspects. Buckner testified at the evidentiary hearing that he followed up on these rumors but found no one at the time willing to make a statement. He also testified that, as the police found no plausible evidence of other suspects, he did not wish to place the additional expense on the Bower family of hiring an investigator when there appeared to be no justification for doing so. Although Buckner did not hire an independent investigator, this fact alone is not indicative of ineffective assistance in a capital case. The decision to hire an investigator is reviewed for reasonableness. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052. In Bryant, we held that an attorney's failure to investigate was unreasonable under Strickland when that attorney failed to interview known eye witnesses to the crime and limited his trial investigation to discussions with the defendant and examination of the prosecutor's file. See Bryant, 28 F.3d at 1418. Here, there were no eyewitnesses that Buckner failed to interview, either witnesses to the murders themselves or credible witnesses willing to testify regarding other potential perpetrators. Because of the nature of the unverified rumors as well as the paucity of witnesses willing to confirm them at the time of the trial, Buckner's decision not to hire an investigator was not objectively unreasonable, and his investigation provided him a reasonable basis on which to make the decision of whether or not to hire an investigator.