Opinion ID: 768370
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Merits of Scott's Challenge to the Unanimity Instruction

Text: 75 Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution and in order to clarify our precedents governing sentencing-phase instructions on jury unanimity, we will consider in the alternative the merits of Scott's challenge. The unanimity instruction given to Scott's jury read: 76 If all 12 members of the jury find, by proof beyond a reasonable doubt, that the aggravating circumstances which Jay Scott was found guilty of committing outweigh the mitigating factors, then you must return such a finding to the Court. I instruct you as a matter of law that if you make such a finding, then you have no choice and must recommend to the Court that the sentence of death be imposed upon the defendant, Jay Scott. [...] 77 On the other hand, if after considering all of the relevant evidence raised at trial, the testimony, other evidence, the statement of Jay Scott, and the arguments of counsel, you find that the State of Ohio failed to prove that the aggravating circumstances which the defendant, Jay Scott, was found guilty of committing, outweigh the mitigating factors, then you will return your verdict reflecting your decision. 78 In this event, you will then proceed to determine which of two possible life imprisonment sentences to recommend to the Court. [...] 79 Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me, first of all, before we continue, before I read to you what your verdict is, you see it is almost identical, and when I say It is almost identical, to the forms that you have received before. It says, and I just picked them up the way they were, Sentencing Proceeding on the top, and it identifies the case, the case number, and then it says, Verdict: We, the jury in this case being duly empaneled and sworn, do find beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances which the defendant, Jay Scott,was found guilty of committing, are sufficient to outweigh the mitigating factors presented in this case. 80 We, the jury, recommend that the sentence of death be imposed upon the defendant, Jay Scott, and, again, signed by the foreman or forelady and all 12 of you must sign. 81 The second form is: We, the jury in this case being duly empaneled and sworn, do find that the aggravating circumstances which the defendant, Jay Scott, was found guilty of committing, are not sufficient to outweigh the mitigating factors present in this case. 82 We, the jury, recommend that the defendant, Jay Scott, be sentenced to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after sentencing, and then there's a blank with an asterisk which refers down and says, insert years of imprisonment, and again, the signatures, and the first line is reserved for the foreman or forelady, and the remainder of the eleven of you must sign that verdict form. It must be unanimous. [...] 83 After you have retired, first, select a foreman or forelady and when all 12 of you - I repeat - all 12 of you agree upon a verdict, you will sign the verdict in ink, and advise the Court of this fact. You will remain in the jury room until summoned back into the courtroom. When you return to the courtroom, your verdict will be returned to me, as you did before, and I will read it for you. (emphasis added by district court). This was based on the following provision of Ohio law: 84 If the trial jury unanimously finds, by proof beyond a reasonable doubt, that the aggravating circumstances the offender was found guilty of committing outweigh the mitigating factors, the trial jury shall recommend to the court that the sentence of death be imposed on the offender. Absent such a finding, the jury shall recommend that the offender be sentenced to [one of the following life imprisonment terms]. 85 Ohio Rev. Code § 2929.03(D)(2) (emphasis added by district court). It was clear to the district court that the statute did not require unanimity in recommending a life sentence, but rather mandated life imprisonment if the jury reached anything but unanimity on death. The court also reviewed three decisions of the Ohio Supreme Court interpreting § 2929.03(D)(2). The first, State v. Jenkins, 473 N.E.2d 264, 270 (Ohio 1984) (syllabus ¶ 10), held that a jury's recommendation of life imprisonment under that section must be unanimous. 7 In State v. Springer, 586 N.E.2d 96, 97 (Ohio 1992) (syllabus), the court held that when the jury became hopelessly deadlocked as to sentence, the court is required to impose a life sentence. In State v. Brooks, 661 N.E.2d 1030 (Ohio 1996), the court reviewed a sentencing instruction that the jury must unanimously agree that the death penalty is inappropriate before recommending a life sentence. The courtfound this contrary to § 2929.03(D)(2). See id. at 1040-41. Brooks purported to harmonize the Jenkins and Springer holdings by requiring an instruction to be given thenceforth that a solitary juror could prevent the imposition of the death penalty. See id. at 1041-42. The district court found it notable that Springer and Brooks were decided after Scott's sentence was imposed, but decided that Brooks had simply clarified, not altered, Ohio law on the subject. It thus found the trial court's instruction requiring unanimity on life to be inconsistent with Ohio law. 86 Since the fact that the instruction was allegedly incorrect under state law is not a basis for habeas relief, see Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 71-72 (1991), the district court went on to observe that the instructions left no room for the jury to believe the court could accept anything other than a unanimous recommendation, and gave no direction to the jury as to the effect a jury split would have on the jury's prior determination of guilt, or on the sentence the trial court could or would then impose on Scott. The court then followed Kubat v. Thieret, 867 F.2d 351 (7th Cir. 1989), which found a similar instruction to create the impermissible possibility that individual jurors would believe that unanimity was required as to the existence of mitigating factors, the result condemned by Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367 (1988). The district court saw the fact that a minority of this Court had followed Kubat, and the majority had merely distinguished it factually, in Kordenbrock v. Scroggy, 919 F.2d 1091 (6th Cir. 1990) (en banc), as evidence that we would follow Kubat here. Therefore, the court found a substantial possibility that the faulty jury instruction which created this mis-impression violated Scott's Fourteenth Amendment right to be free from deprivation of life without due process of law. 87 We think that the court's likening of the instruction given here to those at issue in Mills and Kubat was incorrect. Those instructions required the jury to be unanimous in its finding of each mitigating factor, whereas this instruction plainly applies only to the overall weighing of mitigating and aggravating factors. In this regard, Scott's argument is indistinguishable from the one we recently rejected in Coe v. Bell, 161 F.3d 320, 336-39 (6th Cir. 1998). In that case, 88 The jury was then given the form its verdict should take: 89
90 (2) We, the Jury, unanimously find that there are no mitigating circumstances sufficiently substantial to outweigh the [aggravating circumstances] so listed above. 91 (3) Therefore, we, the Jury, unanimously find that the punishment shall be death. 92 The alternate result was then provided for and explained: 93 If you unanimously determine that no statutory aggravating circumstance has been proved by the State beyond a reasonable doubt; or if the Jury unanimously determine that [aggravating circumstances] have been proved by the State beyond a reasonable doubt; but that said [aggravating circumstances] are outweighed by one or more mitigating circumstances, the sentence shall be life imprisonment. 94 For both the death verdict and the life imprisonment verdict, the jury was told that its verdict must be unanimous. 95 Id. at 337 (alterations in original). As in this case, the district court in Coe found this instruction to be unacceptable under, inter alia, Mills, because there was a reasonable probability that the jurors believed that they could consider only those mitigating circumstances that they unanimously agreed were present. Id. Coe upheld the instruction because requiring unanimity only as to the results of the weighing process is a far different matterthan requiring unanimity as to the presence of a mitigating factor . . . . The instructions say clearly and correctly that in order to obtain a unanimous verdict, each juror must conclude that the mitigators do not outweigh the aggravators. Id. at 338 (emphasis in original). In this regard, Coe specifically distinguished that instruction from those at issue in Mills, 486 U.S. at 387 (reviewing a verdict form that read Based upon the evidence we unanimously find that each of the following mitigating circumstances which is marked 'yes' has been proven to exist by a preponderance of the evidence and each mitigating circumstance marked 'no' has not been proven by a preponderance of the evidence (emphasis omitted)), and Kubat, 867 F.2d at 369 (If . . . you unanimously conclude that there is a sufficiently mitigating factor or factors to preclude imposition of the death sentence, you should sign the verdict form which so indicates.), which much more clearly required unanimity in the finding of mitigating factors. 96 Similarly, Scott's jury was instructed to recommend death if it unanimously found that the aggravating circumstances which Jay Scott was found guilty of committing outweigh the mitigating factors, and to choose an appropriate life sentence if it was unanimous in finding that the State of Ohio failed to prove that the aggravating circumstances which the defendant . . . was found guilty of committing, outweigh the mitigating factors. This instruction pertains only to the weighing process, and not to the existence of individual mitigating or aggravating factors. Indeed, the instruction references these factors in the past tense, which suggests that the jurors were to have formed their opinions on the factors' existence before attempting to reach unanimity on their net weight. As in Coe, [n]othing in this language could reasonably be taken to require unanimity as to the presence of a mitigating factor. 161 F.3d at 338. Whether or not the district court was correct that the instruction violated Ohio law by not conforming with the Ohio Supreme Court's subsequent decision in Brooks (which we find doubtful, given that court's approval of Scott's sentence), it does not violate Scott's federal constitutional rights under Mills and therefore cannot justify habeas relief. 97 Our conclusion is not altered by the portion of the opinion in Mapes v. Coyle, 171 F.3d 408 (6th Cir. 1999), which suggests that such unanimity instructions are erroneous. In that Ohio capital case, we reviewed a similar challenge to a virtually identical unanimity instruction. See Mapes, 171 F.3d at 416 ([Y]ou must unanimously find that the State has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances of which the defendant was found guilty of committing outweigh the mitigating factors.). We stated in dicta that this instruction was erroneous because Brooks had found such instructions to violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, but we declined to issue a writ on this ground because the petitioner had procedurally defaulted that claim. See id. at 416-17, 419. The only reliance on federal constitutional law in Brooks, however, is its citation to Mills in explaining why it would thenceforth require that Ohio jurors be explicitly instructed that a solitary juror may prevent a death penalty recommendation by finding that the aggravating circumstances in the case do not outweigh the mitigating factors. Brooks, 661 N.E.2d at 1042. Although the Brooks case was remanded for resentencing because the Ohio Supreme Court could not be sure of the effect that the instruction to determine unanimously that the death penalty is inappropriate before you can consider a life sentence had on that jury, id. at 1040, its requirement of an explicit instruction that a solitary juror may prevent a death penalty recommendation was prospective only; Brooks did not hold that all instructions requiring unanimous recommendations of life or death in previously decided Ohio death-penalty cases were unconstitutional. See id. at 1042. There is nothing in the Brooks opinion to cast doubt on the Ohio Supreme Court's previous approval ofScott's sentence (or, for that matter, Mapes's). As we have explained, our Coe decision, which well preceded Mapes, explicitly held that unanimity instructions like those in this case do not violate Mills. The Mapes dicta cannot preclude us from following Coe in this case. 98 We further note that the district court was clearly incorrect in finding error in the trial court's failure to advise the jury in its unanimity instruction as to the consequences of deadlock. The Supreme Court has chastised such instructions as encouraging deadlock and undermining the strong governmental interest in unanimous verdicts. See Jones v. United States, 119 S.Ct. 2090, 2099-2100 (1999). We did the same in Coe, 161 F.3d at 339-40. 99 2. The Trial Court's Penalty-Phase Instructions Regarding Considerations of Mercy and Effect of Recommendation of Death 100 As with the challenge to the unanimity instruction, the State claims that Scott's challenges to these two jury instructions are defaulted because Scott made no contemporaneous objection. The district court held that these claims had not been procedurally defaulted because the Ohio Supreme Court had performed a plain-error review of each of them. The district court determined, however, that the claims were without merit. 101 We think that the district court erred in holding that these claims were not procedurally defaulted. As to each of them, the Ohio Supreme Court explicitly stated that Scott had failed to raise any contemporaneous objection, and under its precedent of State v. Fanning, 437 N.E.2d 583, 585 (Ohio 1982), any error was waived. As was the case in Coe, the state court's statement could have been clearer and more express, but the test is not whether the state court could have said it better. It is enough that the court specifically held that the claims were waived; the court's alternative holding that there was no plain error does not require us to disregard the state court's finding of procedural bar. Coe, 161 F.3d at 330. 102 We further conclude, however, that the district court correctly determined that neither of these claims had merit. The trial judge instructed the jury that its recommendation of death would be just that - a recommendation, while a recommendation of life imprisonment is binding upon the Court, and I, the Judge, must impose the specific life sentence which you recommend. Scott claims that this violates the principle established in Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320 (1985), that courts must not mislead the jury into believing it has less responsibility than it actually does for choosing the death sentence. 103 We recently rejected this precise claim in Mapes v. Coyle, 171 F.3d 408, 414-15 (6th Cir. 1999). Moreover, as the district court correctly held, Caldwell is limited to situations in which the jury is misled as to its role in a way that allows [it] to feel less responsible than it should for the sentencing decision. Thus, to establish a Caldwell violation, a defendant necessarily must show that the remarks to the jury improperly described the role assigned to the jury by local law. Romano v. Oklahoma, 512 U.S. 1, 9 (1994) (citations and alterations omitted); see also Dugger, 489 U.S. at 407; Kordenbrock, 919 F.2d at 1101. As Mapes points out, this instruction accurately describes Ohio law. There is no error with regard to this instruction. The trial court also instructed the jury: 104 You must not be influenced by any consideration of sympathy or prejudice. It is your duty to carefully weigh the evidence to decide all disputed questions of fact, to apply the instructions of the Court to your findings, and to render your verdict accordingly. In fulfilling your duty, your efforts must be to arrive at a just verdict. Consider all the evidenceand make your finding with intelligence and impartiality, without bias, sympathy or prejudice, so that the State of Ohio and the defendant will feel that their case was fairly and impartially tried. 105 We rejected a challenge to the substance of this instruction in Mapes as well: 106 Third, an instruction to a death-sentence jury that it may disregard the statutory criteria for imposing a death sentence may be constitutionally impermissible in light of the probability that such an instruction would result in arbitrary and unpredictable results. See California v. Brown, 479 U.S. 538, 541, 107 S.Ct. 837, 93 L.Ed.2d 934 (1987). According to the Court, sentencers may not be given unbridled discretion in determining the fates of those charged with capital offenses. Id. Thus, an instruction that the jury should not be swayed by mere sentiment, conjecture, sympathy, passion, prejudice, public opinion or public feeling was not only unobjectionable in Brown, it serve[d] the useful purpose of confining the jury's imposition of the death sentence by cautioning it against reliance on [irrelevant,] extraneous emotional factors. Id. at 542, 543, 107 S.Ct. 837. Thus, there is no merit whatsoever to Mapes's claimed entitlement to a merciful discretion instruction, in light of the likely tendency of such an instruction to lead to arbitrary differences in whom is selected to be sentenced to death. 107 171 F.3d at 415-16 (emphasis omitted, alterations in original). The district court also correctly relied on Brown, reasoning that the instruction followed that decision by warning against all emotional responses, both in favor of and against Scott. There was no error as to this instruction either. 108 B. The Trial Judge's Comments to the Jury Venire 109 We examine this claim de novo, with deference to facts found in state court, for denial of fundamental fairness. It is not procedurally barred. 110 Scott challenges a remark made by the trial judge which he claims communicated to the jury the court's belief that Scott participated in the crime. During voir dire, the judge explained to the jury that the court knew there was notoriety surrounding the case because he had seen a newspaper article on it. The judge mentioned some details of the crime, then continued, Not only was Mr. Scott - at least from the newspaper reports that I think I had read - was involved in this, there were three other--. . . . At that point, the defense objected, and received a sidebar. The Court gave a curative instruction explaining the court's lack of knowledge on the case beyond the article. Scott moved for a mistrial, which the prosecution reluctantly joined. Denying the motion, the Court gave another instruction reiterating its neutrality and the jury's duty to decide based solely on the evidence. 111 Dissenting from Scott's denial of certiorari, Justices Marshall and Brennan lambasted the Ohio courts for upholding such an extraordinary error that overwhelmed the presumption of innocence. Scott v. Ohio, 480 U.S. at 925. They also pointed out that empaneling another jury would have been easy at the voir dire stage. For this reason and because the prosecutor joined the mistrial motion, the district court found this issue a close call. Nonetheless, the court found no fundamental unfairness. It viewed the comments as reporting to the jury the media's conclusion, and the fact that even the judge had seen the coverage, in an attempt to determine the jury's ability to be impartial. It concluded by noting that the verdict would likely have been upheld under Supreme Court precedent even if the jury themselves had read the article. 112 We find no error in the district court's conclusion. The threat of prejudicial comments from the court usually arises in response to evidence presented at trial. In this context, we have said 113 It is the duty of the trial judge to conduct an orderly trial with the goal ofeliciting the truth and attaining justice between the parties. In charging the jury, the trial judge is not limited to instructions of an abstract sort. It is within his province, whenever he thinks it necessary, to assist the jury in arriving at a just conclusion by explaining and commenting upon the evidence, by drawing their attention to the parts of it which he thinks important; and he may express his opinion upon the facts, provided he makes it clear to the jury that all matters of fact are submitted to their determination. The district judge may not assume the role of a witness. He or she may, however, analyze and dissect the evidence, as long as the district judge does not distort or add to it. When commenting on the evidence, the trial judge must take great care to avoid undue prejudice of the jury. 114 United States v. Blakeney, 942 F.2d 1001, 1013 (6th Cir. 1991) (citations, quotations and alterations omitted). Hence, the judge did not exceed his authority merely by pointing out the existence of the article and discussing its contents as a basis to judge juror impartiality. 115 Allegations of jury bias must be viewed with skepticism when the challenged influence occurred before the jurors took their oath to be impartial. Holding that pretrial publicity did not bias a juror in Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025, 1036 (1984), the Court said that the partiality of a juror is plainly a question of historical fact: did a juror swear that he could set aside any opinion he might hold and decide the case on the evidence, and should the juror's protestation of impartiality have been believed. Accordingly, the Court held that such a determination by a state court was entitled to a presumption of correctness on habeas review under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). This is especially so in light of the two curative instructions the court gave, which we must presume to have been effective unless there is an overwhelming probability that they were ignored. Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 208 (1987). 116 Scott's scenario of jury bias is not nearly tenable enough to overcome these presumptions. Scott and Justice Marshall cited Quercia v. United States, 289 U.S. 466 (1933), for the proposition that the judge's comments warped the jury's perception beyond all hope of repair. The extremity of that case's facts, however, provide a perfect foil to demonstrate the mildness of the instant case. In Quercia, the trial judge instructed the jury that he believed every word the defendant said to be a lie because the defendant had wiped his hands while on the stand. See id. at 468-69. Here, we have only Scott's inference that the court's facially innocuous statement may have been understood as a frank, unguarded admission of the judge's opinion, which would then have a prejudicial effect on a juror's verdict. All we know for certain is that the court communicated the existence of pretrial publicity, which Patton held not to be an indelible influence on a juror's mind. See also United States v. Peters, 754 F.2d 753, 762-63 (7th Cir. 1985) (recounting several studies demonstrating capital jurors' ability to put media reports out of their minds and vote exclusively on the evidence). This alone does not destroy fundamental fairness. 117 C. Ineffective Assistance of Trial Counsel During the Penalty Phase 118 We apply to this claim the same de novo standard listed above. For Scott's counsel to have deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance, the counsel's performance must have so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686 (1984). It is Scott's burden to show his attorneys' performance fell below an objective standard of reasonablenessand that Scott was thereby prejudiced. See id. at 687-88. Counsel's performance is strongly presumed to be effective. See id. at 690; Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365, 381 (1986). 119 The district court found all but one of the several grounds for ineffectiveness of his trial counsel that Scott raised before it to be procedurally barred, and Scott does not pursue those defaulted allegations on appeal. The sole remaining argument is that Scott's sentencing-phase counsel were ineffective because they failed to research possible mitigating factors, and also failed to interview Scott's several family members who often attended the trial. Scott's attorneys did not present any mitigating evidence other than Scott's own unsworn statement to the jury. 8 They pursued a residual doubt strategy, in which the defendant appeals to the jury's lingering doubt regarding the conviction in an attempt to dissuade them from imposing the death penalty. The state trial court held a post-conviction evidentiary hearing on this issue, and determined that: (1) trial counsel's testimony was more reliable than that of the family members; (2) the intransigence of Scott and his family was responsible for his counsel's failure to identify and obtain mitigating evidence from the family members; (3) the family members made no attempt to offer assistance until after Scott's conviction; and (4) had Scott chosen to have a pre-sentence investigation report prepared or had the family members testified, the jury would have learned of Scott's extensive criminal history. The court also made two other mixed findings of law and fact, namely that the family's testimony was unreliable and unhelpful and that Scott's lawyers acted in his best interest. The district court appropriately acknowledged its deference to the hearing's findings on the primary, historical facts, which Scott could not come close to rebutting with clear and convincing evidence. Moreover, while acknowledging the questionable amount of research done by counsel, the court decided that the second Strickland prong could not be met because Scott could not show a reasonable probability that the sentence would have been different otherwise. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694. The court ended its discussion, however, with a footnote, noting that this too was a close call since one juror might always have been persuaded, and that the question was ultimately mooted by the court's grant of the writ on another ground. 120 The district court was correct to focus on the second Strickland prong. It is clear that, in its words, the mitigating circumstances Scott wishes his counsel had presented . . . are largely, even overwhelmingly, negated by evidence that his background includes commission of robbery, assault, kidnaping, and other violent acts upon innocent citizens, and that prosecutors would have elicited such information from any family members who testified for Scott. The mitigating evidence would have revealed Scott's personal loyalty to his siblings, girlfriend, and children, and an exceedingly violent environment throughout his upbringing. As the district court said, it is impossible to say for certain that one juror would not have been swayed by this evidence, but certainty is not required here; we must ask only whether Scott has met his burden of demonstrating a reasonable probability that this would happen. None of the profferedmitigating evidence reduces Scott's culpability for the Prince murder or the string of violence that preceded it. Scott can only offer a hypothetical juror, not a reasonable probability, and hence cannot show prejudice. 121 As to the first Strickland prong, were we to reach it, it is not clear that the lawyers' performances fell below the objective standard. The state court fact findings that we are bound by indicate that neither Scott nor any proposed witness made any attempt to assist the attorneys in finding mitigating evidence, and that this made the job more difficult. This difficulty, of course, does not excuse a lack of attempt on the lawyers' part. It was their responsibility to present Scott's defense, not Scott's family's or even Scott's. In Glenn v. Tate, 71 F.3d 1204, 1207-08 (6th Cir. 1995), we held lawyers' conduct to be objectively unreasonable when they waited until after the verdict to prepare for the sentencing phase, failed to interview any family members or friends, and conducted no research at all into mitigation except to prepare one inadmissible videotape. We followed Glenn in Austin v. Bell, 126 F.3d 843, 848-49 (6th Cir. 1997), to find a lawyer ineffective when he failed to investigate or present any mitigating evidence despite the availability and willingness of several relatives and friends. We characterized counsel's performance there as not a strategic decision, but rather an abdication of advocacy. Id. at 849; see also Byrd, 209 F.3d at 526 (following Austin and Glenn)); O'Guinn v. Dutton, 88 F.3d 1409, 1424 (en banc) (Merritt, C.J., concurring) (finding attorneys' near-complete failure to investigate or present mitigating evidence, because each attorney thought the other was preparing it, to go beyond ineffectiveness into total incompetence). In Mapes, we remanded for a hearing on the effectiveness of appellate counsel, in part because he failed to raise the fact that the sentencing phase counsel conducted no research into mitigating factors. 122 Scott's penalty-phase attorneys would certainly have been well-advised to conduct more research into mitigating factors than they did. Unlike in Austin and O'Guinn, however, these lawyers had a credible reason for not presenting testimony: a desire to keep Scott's extensive criminal history from the jury. See also Byrd, 209 F.3d at 526-27 (same). The state trial and appeals courts found this strategy to be in Scott's best interest, given his claim of actual innocence throughout trial and sentencing and the magnitude of his criminal past. Moreover, both the Ohio and United States Supreme Courts have endorsed a residual doubt strategy when warranted by the circumstances. See Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162, 181 (1986) (recognizing the strategy as an extremely effective argument for defendants in capital cases (citation omitted)); State v. Johnson, 494 N.E.2d 1061, 1065 (Ohio 1986) (omission of [mitigating] evidence in an appropriate case could be . . . the result of a tactical, informed decision by counsel, completely consonant with his duties to represent the accused effectively). Without effective research into the available mitigating testimony, of course, it would be impossible for the lawyers to have made an informed decision either way, even if residual doubt was a viable option in retrospect. If we were to hold Scott's lawyers to be ineffective, then, it would have to be on the grounds of their failure to research mitigating evidence, not their failure to present it. Otherwise, there would be merit to the district court's concern in this case that to condone the lawyers' performance would be to create a post-hoc exception for faulty lawyering. Regardless, the Constitution guarantees competent counsel and a fair trial, not perfection. In light of the finding of the state common pleas court's evidentiary hearing that the lawyers' testimony is more credible than that of Scott's family, and that Scott's criminal history would have been known to the attorneys even without further research, we believe thatthe decision of Scott's attorneys to pursue a residual-doubt strategy in this case was not objectively unreasonable, because it was adequately (if not ideally) informed and was quite arguably the best course of action available. 123 D. Cumulative Error From Two Allegedly Erroneous Guilt-Phase Jury Instructions 124 As noted above, to warrant habeas relief, jury instructions must not only have been erroneous, but also, taken as a whole, so infirm that they rendered the entire trial fundamentally unfair. See Coe, 161 F.3d at 329. This burden is even greater than that required to demonstrate plain error on direct appeal. See Frady, 456 U.S. at 166; Henderson, 431 U.S. at 154 (The question in such a collateral proceeding is whether the ailing instruction by itself so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violates due process, not merely whether the instruction by itself is undesirable, erroneous, or even universally condemned (citations and internal quotations omitted)). Allegations of trial error raised in challenges to jury instructions are reviewed for whether they had a substantial and injurious effect or influence on the verdict, and are subject to harmless-error analysis. 9 See Gilliam v. Mitchell, 179 F.3d 990, 994-95 (6th Cir. 1999) (citing Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 638 (1993)). 125 Also as with the challenge to the unanimity instruction, the State claims that both of these claims are defaulted because they were not objected to contemporaneously. Scott has made no response. The district court reached the merits of the first instruction challenged here, relating to witness credibility, without discussing its potential default. Regardless of whether this claim was defaulted, it is easily disposed of on the merits. The court also correctly held the second ground, regarding the definition of reasonable doubt, not to be waived, because the Ohio Supreme Court itself said so in a later opinion that discussed Scott's case. See State v. Van Gundy, 594 N.E.2d 604, 607 (Ohio 1992). 126 1. Instruction on Credibility of Addicts and Accomplices 127 Tramble admitted being an addict when he gave his information to the police, and Jones and O'Neal also testified against Scott as accomplices. Scott proposed specific instructions on the particular unreliability of accomplices, and that the testimony of drug addicts should be considered with great care because of their constant need of drug money and abnormal fear of imprisonment. Instead, the court gave general instructions on the jury's duty to determine witness motivation and credibility, and instructed that accomplice testimony must be corroborated by other credible, believable evidence. 128 The district court, relying on United States v. Howard, 590 F.2d 564, 570 (4th Cir. 1979), found no error in rejecting the addict instruction because there was no evidence that Tramble was still addicted at the time of trial, and could not have had an abnormal fear of imprisonment since he was already incarcerated at the time. The Ohio Supreme Court also relied on Howard in rejecting Scott's appeal. See State v. Scott, 497 N.E.2d 55, 63 (Ohio 1986). We have never directly followed or contradicted Howard, although we have acted consistently with it by dismissing a claim of error for failure to produce any evidence that the witnesses were addicted at trial. See United States v. Freeman, Nos. 91-1011, 91-1012, 1991 WL 203088, at  (6th Cir. Oct. 4, 1991) (unpublished). Instead, in an unpublished opinion, when an appellant challenged the refusal to give a similar instruction for awitness who was an addict-informer but not addicted at trial, we relied on our authority governing addict-informer instructions. See United States v. Anderson, Nos. 97-5352, 97-5382, 1998 WL 833701, at  (6th Cir. Nov. 20, 1998). This court has long recognized the importance of an addict-informant instruction in appropriate cases. United States v. Brown, 946 F.2d 1191, 1195 (6th Cir.1991). However, there is no per se rule requiring such instructions to be given in all cases involving addict testimony; instead, the need for such an instruction depends on the circumstances of each case. Id. (internal quotation omitted). The district court errs by failing to give a requested instruction only when the requested instruction is correct, not substantially covered by the actual jury charge, and when not giving the instruction would substantially impair defendant's defense. See United States v. Sassak, 881 F.2d 276, 279 (6th Cir.1989). 129 We agree with the district court, and adopt the reasoning of Howard. It is certainly consistent with our handful of unpublished decisions on the issue, none of which has been receptive to requiring the addict instruction, and it is sensible; there is no reason to believe that Tramble's former drug use impaired his testimony at trial. But Scott's argument is lacking even under our prior case law. The requested instruction is correct, as it is remarkably similar to the Sixth Circuit pattern instruction for addict-informers. But the trial court's instruction to consider the witnesses' motives should have been sufficient, and there was no impairment to Scott's defense significant enough to be cognizable on post-conviction review. 130 Nor did the court err in refusing Scott's accomplice instruction. In United States v. Carr, 5 F.3d 986 (6th Cir. 1993), an appellant challenged the trial court's refusal to give anything more than a general instruction on judging witness credibility. In dismissing the argument, we said 131 The court's instruction adequately informed the jury regarding the credibility of witness testimony, and so we are not troubled simply because the court chose not to explicitly highlight the credibility problems inhering in accomplice testimony. The instructions alerted the jury to the various considerations that it should take into account in weighing testimony, and it had an ample basis for rejecting the testimony of the accomplice witnesses if it had chosen to do so. In short, because the instructions given by the court substantially covered the same material as the instruction requested by the defendant, there was no reversible error. 132 Id. at 992. We have since followed Carr in not requiring accomplice instructions as a general matter, a rule that is significantly less favorable to defendants than the approaches of some of our sister circuits. See, e.g., United States v. Hill, 627 F.2d 1052 (10th Cir.1980) (finding reversible plain error when no accomplice instruction was given and no other evidence corroborated the accomplice testimony); United States v. Davis, 439 F.2d 1105 (9th Cir.1971) (same); Tillery v. United States, 411 F.2d 644 (5th Cir.1969) (same); United States v. McCabe, 720 F.2d 951, 956 (7th Cir. 1983) (holding lack of accomplice instruction to be error when corroborating evidence was insufficient to overcome the inherent unreliability of accomplice testimony); United States v. Lee, 506 F.2d 111, 120 (D.C. Cir.1974) (holding failure to give instruction harmless because accomplice's testimony was materially corroborated); United States v. Williams, 463 F.2d 393, 396 (10th Cir.1972) (considerable evidence corroborated the accomplice's testimony). Scott received an accomplice instruction that required the jury to look for additional corroboration, just not in the language he proposed. There is no error here, much less one justifying a writ.