Opinion ID: 505930
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Claim to An Evidentiary Hearing to Introduce

Text: Psychiatric Testimony 59 Appellant also argues that the district court erred in refusing to afford him an evidentiary hearing at which he would have presented psychiatric testimony concerning his allegedly diminished mental capacity. Appellant wished to offer this testimony in support of the claim that his trial counsel provided him with constitutionally inadequate assistance of counsel by, inter alia, failing to investigate more thoroughly and present evidence concerning appellant's mental condition (1) as part of an insanity or other diminished responsibility defense that he should have asserted at trial, and (2) as a mitigating circumstance in the penalty phase of the proceedings. As we conclude in Part III below, however, it is clear from the record already before the court that trial counsel's failure to seek additional psychiatrist assistance or otherwise further investigate appellant's mental condition before trial for the purpose of presenting an insanity or other diminished responsibility defense at trial did not deny appellant the effective assistance of counsel in the guilt phase of the trial. Because the evidence appellant seeks to introduce could in no way affect our conclusion in this regard, he is not entitled to an evidentiary hearing in the district court to support his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in the guilt phase of his trial. See Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 312, 83 S.Ct. 745, 756-57, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963). We also decide in Part III below, on the basis of the record already before the court, that appellant did not receive constitutionally adequate representation in the sentencing phase of the proceedings. Because we are able to determine the merits of appellant's ineffective assistance claims on the basis of the record already before the court, the district court did not err in denying a hearing for the taking of additional evidence in support of those claims. 60