Opinion ID: 160217
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: First Stage Closing Statement

Text: 85 Hale next argues that during closing argument in the guilt phase of the trial, his attorney conceded his guilt and thus denied him effective assistance of counsel. The OCCA rejected this claim, finding no prejudice. Hale I, 750 P.2d at 142. The court further concluded that if counsel had claimed that Hale had not been involved at all, in the face of overwhelming evidence of Hale's involvement, counsel would have lost all credibility with the jury. Id. 86 The relevant portion of counsel's argument is as follows: 87 This is the FBI's case. And after all they're the best in the country. At least that's what they tell us. And they look pretty sharp. Couple of the experts even spelled their names for you so you wouldn't miss out to know that. They're slick. The State would have you accept the FBI's case without any questions. Don't delve into hypotheticals says the State. Don't bother yourself with unanswered questions because we have answered everything that you could want to know. That's not true. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and you should ask every reasonable question that comes to your mind when you are in that jury room. . . .There isn't any doubt that Jim Hale was involved in this. No doubt whatsoever. How much though? To what extent? And was he the only one? How many voices were on the tapes? Susan Hale, Jim's wife, was able to say, I can only identify my husband as on one of those tapes. What did it sound like to you? 88 We conclude that the OCCA reasonably applied Strickland in resolving this issue. Although an attorney who adopts and acts upon a belief that his client should be convicted 'fail[s] to function in any meaningful sense as the Government's adversary,' Osborn v. Shillinger, 861 F.2d 612, 625 (10th Cir. 1988) (quoting United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 666, 104 S. Ct. 2039, 80 L. Ed. 2d. 657 (1984) (alteration in original)), Hale's counsel did not act in such a manner in this case. Instead, he made a reasonable strategic decision to concede some involvement by Hale, given the overwhelming evidence presented at trial, and focused on the extent of his involvement and whether others could have been involved. See Trice v. Ward, 196 F.3d 1151, 1161-62 (10th Cir. 1999) (finding it was neither unreasonable nor prejudicial to admit some involvement and focus energy on other arguments, when evidence was overwhelming). 89 Moreover, given the overwhelming evidence linking Hale to the crime i.e., F.B.I. identification of Hale as the man making at least some of the ransom calls to Mrs. Perry; hair, gun, and blood evidence linking Hale to the crime; the body wrapped in a trampoline tarp which fit Hale's trampoline; and other eyewitness accounts of Hale's involvement Hale cannot show a reasonable probability that the outcome of the guilt phase of the trial would have been different absent the concession made by his attorney during closing argument.