Opinion ID: 1129333
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Bullet Lead Analysis

Text: Next, Smith alleges that counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge an FBI expert's testimony regarding bullet lead compositional analysis and that counsel was unprepared because he did not obtain his own expert. [6] We hold that the trial court correctly denied relief. The evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing amply demonstrated that Smith's trial counsel hired an expert to examine the scientific evidence in question and to challenge it. The expert, however, found no problems with the FBI analysis. In addition, defense counsel himself researched the FBI's scientific methodology. Finally, Smith's expert admitted at the postconviction hearing that no research, including his own, was available to challenge the FBI evidence at the time of retrial. Accordingly, Smith failed to meet the first prong of the Strickland standard.