Opinion ID: 1654062
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Counsel failed to investigate or offer any independent evidence of cocaine psychosis.

Text: ¶ 33. Davis next alleges that Shaddock attempted to show that Davis was a drug user, specifically cocaine, to the extent that he could not form the intent required to commit murder, and to the extent that his drug use resulted in impairment so severe that it should be considered as a mitigating circumstance in his sentencing. Davis continually uses the term cocaine psychosis as what Shaddock was trying to show, or should have been trying to show. ¶ 34. Specifically, Davis alleges that Shaddock was ineffective in his failure to employ an expert witness, failure to attempt to have the court appoint and fund such a witness, and failure to offer any lay witness who would have testified to his drug problems. Davis relies on his affidavit, which states that he got addicted to cocaine real bad the month before Linda Hillman's death. Davis also alleges that he was drinking a six pack of beer a day for the last year or two before Hillman's death, and was taking Valium, Xanax, and smoking marijuana. Christine Davis stated in her affidavit that Jeffrey became hooked on drugs at an early age and had along [sic] and continuous problem with addiction.... Davis also alleges that Sam Howell, the toxicology expert for the State, admitted that Davis could have been suffering from cocaine psychosis. Actually, what Howell testified to was that he had no opinion on whether Davis suffered from any drug-induced psychosis and there was no way he could tell whether Davis had suffered from cocaine psychosis. ¶ 35. Davis relies on Woodward v. State, 635 So.2d 805 (Miss.1993), where counsel was found to be ineffective for failure to present all the mitigating psychiatric evidence that was available due to counsel's (mis)understanding that introduction of this evidence would open the door to the State to introduce unlimited character evidence. Davis also cites Loyd v. Smith, 899 F.2d 1416 (5th Cir.1990), where Loyd's counsel was found to be ineffective for failure to obtain an independent psychiatrist, where Loyd had actually been treated in a mental hospital and his hospital treatment records showed symptoms of diminished capacity and brain dysfunction. ¶ 36. In this case Davis is unable to present, even at this point in the proceeding, any affidavit from any kind of mental health expert stating that Davis was under some kind of drug-induced psychosis or state at the time of the crime. There is the possibility that Shaddock could not find any such expert because no such expert existed. There is also the possibility that such a defense would have been as harmful to Davis as beneficial. The fact that Davis was a drug user, perhaps even a heavy drug user, does not inevitably lead to the conclusion that Shaddock could or should have obtained an expert on the subject and used him to Davis's benefit at this trial, and that Shaddock was ineffective for failure to do so. This issue is without merit.