Opinion ID: 1021267
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Steroid Use

Text: Shuler first maintains that counsel were ineffective for failing to investigate Shuler’s use of anabolic steroids. He maintains that such an investigation would have resulted in the development of evidence supporting statutory and non-statutory mitigating factors relating to the drug abuse. At the PCR hearing, Shuler presented the testimony of Dr. Harrison G. Pope, an expert on the effects of steroid use. Dr. Pope testified that individuals who use large quantities of anabolic steroids, in the manner typical of body builders, often experience mania or hypomania characterized in part by marked irritability and aggression. Although Dr. Pope neither examined Shuler nor spoke with him, he concluded that Shuler was abusing steroids at the time of the crime based on Shuler’s admission to Dr. Schwartz-Watts, reports from Dr. Schwartz-Watts and others regarding Shuler’s physique, the fact that Shuler had asked his girlfriend, Aleshia Berry, to contact a pharmacist friend for help in acquiring drugs, and a “bizarre” and “aggressive” incident in 1996 in which Shuler held Berry’s head under the water in a pool for “an extended period of time.” J.A. 869 (internal quotation marks omitted). Dr. Pope identified increasingly aggressive behavior by Shuler, beginning in 1995 when Shuler was involved in a drive-by shooting at his then-workplace and culminating with the robbery-murder for which he had been sentenced to death. 9 Ultimately, Dr. Pope stated his opinion that Shuler’s capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired at the time of the offense (a statutory mitigating factor under South Carolina law) due to steroid use. Shuler contends, in essence, that competent counsel would have conducted a more thorough investigation of Shuler’s steroid use and would have presented the testimony of an expert such as Dr. Pope in order to persuade the jury that Shuler’s steroid use was a mitigating factor. In assessing this claim, the PCR court acknowledged the clearly established rule that “counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691; see id. at 690-91 (“[S]trategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts relevant to plausible options are virtually unchallengeable; and strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation.”). The PCR court found that trial counsel did conduct some investigation into Shuler’s use of steroids. In particular, based on their knowledge that Shuler had used cocaine base and steroids, counsel instructed the defense investigator to conduct an investigation into drug use by Shuler (but did not specifically mention steroids). The investigation revealed some casual drug use 10 and that the person suspected to have been Shuler’s dealer was deceased. However, the primary focus of the investigation was on finding witnesses who would support counsel’s theory of mitigation--that Shuler was a good man and that the crime was out of character. At the PCR hearing, defense counsel testified regarding their strategy with respect to Shuler’s steroid use. Counsel stated that they considered using the evidence but that they decided not to do so because they were concerned that a jury in the conservative county where the case was to be tried would find such evidence aggravating rather than mitigating. Cummings, for example, testified regarding his “reservations about introducing evidence that a healthy, young, grown male self abuses illegal drugs in order to bulk up.” J.A. 874 (internal quotation marks omitted). Trial counsel also believed that presenting any evidence regarding mental health issues, such as the psychological impact of steroid use, would open the door to testimony that Shuler had attempted to feign total memory loss, seizures, and hallucinations. Indeed, counsel decided not to present any mental health testimony after Dr. Morgan testified during the competency hearing that he believed Shuler was malingering. The PCR court concluded that although counsel’s investigation into Shuler’s steroid use was limited, that limitation was objectively reasonable in light of counsel’s strategic judgment 11 that the jury would view such evidence as aggravating, not mitigating. We cannot conclude that this ruling was an unreasonable application of Strickland and Wiggins. Importantly, the only evidence available to counsel indicated that Shuler’s steroid use was limited and remote--according to Cummings and Stokes, Shuler informed them only that he had taken some steroid pills during the summer of 1997, and he denied having used steroids near the time of the crime. Furthermore, the investigator uncovered no evidence of extensive drug use, despite speaking with numerous people who knew Shuler well. Counsel thus decided not to present evidence of past voluntary use of a drug when that evidence likely would have had a negative effect on the jury.2