Opinion ID: 805977
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to obtain an additional IQ score

Text: Mr. Hooks argues that his Atkins counsel was deficient for failing to obtain a more recent IQ score. He points to testing done in 2006, two years after the Atkins proceeding, 21 We reiterate that there was nothing improper about the OCCA’s tackling most of counsel’s alleged errors on prejudice, rather than performance, grounds. -61- that pegged his IQ at 67. On collateral review, the OCCA found that Mr. Hooks was not prejudiced by counsel’s failure to order additional testing. See Hooks Atkins Collateral, slip op. at 9–10. Applying de novo review, we conclude that counsel did not act unreasonably in failing to order an additional IQ test. A wide range of IQ scores was already available for presentation at trial, some low and some high. Indeed, the jury was presented with nine IQ scores ranging from 53 to 80. Mr. Hooks’s counsel was almost certainly aware that IQ scores remain fairly stable over a person’s lifetime, see Ochoa, 669 F.3d at 1137 n.6 (citing American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 40 (4th ed.1994)), and could reasonably think that an additional score would not be significantly different than the scores already available. Further, counsel could not know in advance what the results of the test would be. The 2006 post-trial test resulted in a score of 67, but at the time of trial, counsel could equally have anticipated a higher score—up to 80—if the existing range of scores was any guide. We evaluate conduct from counsel’s perspective at the time, not in hindsight. Rompilla, 545 U.S. at 381 (“[I]n applying Strickland . . . , hindsight is discounted by pegging adequacy to counsel’s perspective at the time investigative decisions are made and by giving a heavy measure of deference to counsel’s judgments.” (citation omitted) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 691) (internal quotation marks omitted)); see also Challoner, 583 F.3d at 749. We conclude that counsel made a reasonable decision not to order an additional IQ score and that her performance was not unreasonable under Strickland. -62-