Opinion ID: 2508188
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 28

Heading: failure to present adequate psychological evidence during penalty phase

Text: ISSUE (9). Whether Petitioner's right to counsel under the sixth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution was violated when his counsel presented psychological evidence during the penalty phase of the trial. Petitioner's argument that his counsel was ineffective in not submitting adequate psychological evidence during the penalty phase of his trial is not supported by the record. The main focus of Petitioner's mitigating evidence was given in testimony by two experts, Dr. Lloyd I. Cripe, Ph.D. and Dr. Robert B. Olsen, M.D. [272] Dr. Cripe, a specialist in clinical neuropsychology, testified that Petitioner was of low intelligence, had a learning disability, and suffered from substance abuse, diabetes, and a closed head injury. He testified that he diagnosed Petitioner as being generally neurologically impaired from 1994 through 1997 as a result of one or a combination of those conditions. [273] Dr. Olsen, a specialist in internal medicine and psychiatry, testified concerning Petitioner's history of diabetes, chronic alcohol and cocaine abuse and a progressive decline of complex mental functioning between 1994 and 1997. [274] He also expressed the opinion that Petitioner suffered from certain anti-social, borderline and schizotypal personality disorders, but because his brain scan (MRI) and brain wave (EEG) tests were normal, [Petitioner] does not have altered structure in his brain. [275]