Opinion ID: 172823
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Use Evidence

Text: Defendant challenges Oliver’s failure to use at trial the available evidence of Geoffrey’s violent propensities. He alleges that counsel should have called witnesses to testify and presented documents, such as psychiatric records, detailing Geoffrey’s violent behavior. According to Defendant, Oliver essentially used none of this evidence. Only “bits and pieces were tossed out during crossexamination of a state’s witness, almost always accompanied by hearsay objections from the prosecution.” Aplt. Br. at 24. Had the jury heard the omitted evidence, Defendant contends, he would have been acquitted. On direct appeal to the OCCA, Defendant raised this ineffectiveness claim and sought an evidentiary hearing to determine whether trial counsel failed to use available evidence that Geoffrey had been the one who injured Michael. The OCCA granted the hearing. Defendant called the only witness at the hearing, Shirley Wilson, who had been Oliver’s cocounsel at Defendant’s trial. Wilson testified that a variety of documents describing Geoffrey’s psychiatric history and behavioral problems should have been introduced at trial. These documents included school records of Geoffrey’s suspensions for aggressive behavior from 1994 to 1998; three sets of records, dated 1998, from The Brown Schools at Shadow Mountain regarding Geoffrey’s behavior, -15- diagnosis, medication, and treatment; five sets of records from Laureate Psychiatric Clinic, dated between 1996 and 1998, detailing Geoffrey’s behavior, diagnosis, medication, and treatment; and DHS records from 1998 regarding Geoffrey. She also said that the defense had subpoenaed several of Geoffrey’s relatives and teachers to testify to his behavior, such as killing puppies and getting suspended from school for aggression, but that they were not called to testify. On cross-examination by the state, however, Wilson admitted that Oliver had presented various evidence of Geoffrey’s violent propensities. This included evidence of specific instances of aggression, such as killing animals and shoving another child into a fireplace. She acknowledged that Collins, the DHS investigator, testified that during his investigation he had examined Geoffrey’s school reports and determined that Geoffrey was violent. Aplt. App. at 213. She also acknowledged that Oliver introduced into evidence the rebar that Geoffrey allegedly used on Michael and that Collins testified that Geoffrey had admitted to causing Michael’s head injury. In addition, the state elicited that Oliver had introduced into evidence the Brown Schools Assessment, which stated that Geoffrey had admitted to causing brain damage to Michael and had explained that the two-year-old had wanted to be hurt. The assessment also reported that Geoffrey had been treated multiple times at Laureate Psychiatric Clinic. Wilson conceded that the defense team had thought that presenting all the documents that -16- it had gathered would have been overkill and had been concerned about “the evidence being cumulative.” Id. at 207. The hearing judge concluded that Oliver’s alleged failure to use certain evidence was not deficient. She explained: Any failure to use certain documents during the course of the trial was legitimate trial strategy premised upon any number of considerations including, but not limited to, the documents being cumulative of other evidence introduced, the documents not being relevant to the issues at trial, and/or the information contained in the documents being otherwise available. Id. at 91. The judge ruled that Defendant was not deprived of his constitutional right to counsel. Id. The OCCA, affirming the hearing judge’s evidentiary findings and conclusions, held that the “alleged instances of ineffective assistance of counsel were strategic decisions.” Id. at 79. Because the OCCA’s decision was clearly reasonable, we reject this claim of ineffective assistance.