Opinion ID: 856125
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Effect of Martinez

Text: Martinez does not help Petitioner. He had the assistance of counsel in his post-conviction relief proceeding, and counsel raised a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Assuming that Martinez applies in that situation, its exception is available only if Petitioner can establish that his post-conviction counsel was ineffective under the Strickland standard and that the “underlying ineffective-assistance-oftrial-counsel claim is a substantial one, which is to say that . . . the claim has some merit.” 132 S. Ct. at 1318. Here, it cannot be said that Petitioner’s post-conviction counsel performed his duties so incompetently as to be outside the “wide range of professionally competent assistance.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690. Even though Petitioner has now uncovered, during federal habeas proceedings, some new information that was not presented to 19 Petitioner argues that the state court made an error of law in suggesting that it denied this portion of his ineffective assistance of counsel claims because his social history was not “new” evidence. Because Petitioner did not raise this argument in the district court, he may not raise it for the first time on appeal. See Scott v. Ross, 140 F.3d 1275, 1283 (9th Cir. 1998) (identifying a general rule of waiver for issues not raised below, subject to a discretionary exception). Even if we allowed Petitioner to raise this argument, he could gain nothing more than review de novo under the Strickland standard, which is itself deferential. See Frantz, 533 F.3d at 737 (holding that, when “§ 2254(d)(1) is satisfied, then federal habeas courts must review the substantive constitutionality of the state custody de novo”). As noted above, the failure to investigate portion of Petitioner’s ineffective assistance of counsel claims would fail even under review de novo. 36 MILES V . RYAN the state courts during post-conviction review, that evidence is insufficient to demonstrate that his lawyer’s investigation during the state-court proceedings was objectively unreasonable. As detailed above, his counsel conducted an extensive investigation during post-conviction review, obtaining a psychologist to perform further testing and hiring an investigator who visited Petitioner’s home town and interviewed many people who knew him and his mother. Accordingly, Petitioner cannot demonstrate that his postconviction counsel was ineffective. Furthermore, even with new evidence relating to his social history and drug use, Petitioner cannot rescue the claim that his sentencing counsel was ineffective. As we have already discussed, sentencing counsel made a reasonable choice, as a matter of strategy, not to focus on social history and addiction, opting instead to paint Petitioner as a normal person who made a grave mistake during a tumultuous period in his life. Petitioner’s new evidence does not establish that this choice was unreasonable. In summary, even assuming that the Martinez exception applies to Petitioner’s case, he cannot satisfy its requirements.