Opinion ID: 1810649
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to present and investigate significant mitigation evidence

Text: ¶ 90. The United States Supreme Court has very recently discussed this exact issue. See Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003). In Wiggins, the petitioner claimed that he received ineffective assistance because counsel failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence at his sentencing. [11] Id. at 2535. Counsel rebutted the assertion by claiming that they did conduct a limited investigation, which reflected a strategic decision not to present mitigating evidence at the sentencing hearing, but to attempt to implement an alternate strategy instead. Id. ¶ 91. In a 7-2 decision, finding ineffective assistance in the investigation, the Court clarified the manner in which such claims are to be reviewed. Id. at 2531. Quoting Strickland, the Court reiterated that strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation. Id. at 2535. Therefore, since counsel is under a general duty to reasonably investigate, a court should not simply concentrate its analysis on the decision not to present evidence, but instead, should focus on whether the investigation supporting counsel's decision not to introduce mitigating evidence ... was itself reasonable.  Id. at 2536. ¶ 92. Thus, a court is to determine whether counsel exercised reasonable professional judgment in conducting its investigation based on an assessment of the prevailing professional norms, including a context-dependent consideration of the challenged conduct as seen `from counsel's perspective at the time.' Id. We accept this instruction and stand ready to analyze this issue under the guidelines announced above. ¶ 93. In the case at bar, Crawford claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence surrounding the following: (1) emotional illnesses and mental disturbances, (2) sexual and physical abuse, (3) adaptation to prison conditions, (4) remorse, and (5) long-term substance abuse. However, Crawford has failed to even allege any information outside of the knowledge of counsel, much less provide the necessary affidavits of such. With such a glaring lack of evidence by which to determine if Crawford was prejudiced, there is no need to even examine the reasonableness of counsels' investigation. ¶ 94. The lack of new evidence also impacts Crawford's claim that counsel was ineffective in their presentation of evidence during the penalty phase of trial. Because Crawford is unable to challenge the investigation, we are left with no alternative but to treat it as complete and judge counsels' decisions regarding the presentation of evidence as if they had been made according to a complete investigation and, thus, give great deference to any claims of trial strategy. Woodward, 843 So.2d at 7. ¶ 95. As this Court held in Holly v. State, 716 So.2d 979, 990-91 (Miss.1998), where petitioner has given this Court such a sketchy outline of the investigation performed by counsel without any way of knowing counsels' impressions or the reasons behind counsels' decisions, we are left with the presumption that counsel had this evidence, reviewed this evidence, and considered it, as a matter of strategy, that it was in his client's best interest not to bring it out. Notwithstanding, we do not find that the evidence mentioned, even if it all had been presented at sentencing was of a nature, in its entirety, to cast any doubt as to the propriety of the jury's verdict and, as a result, this claim fails. See Woodward, 843 So.2d at 7.