Opinion ID: 1245492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Comments Regarding Silence and Request for Counsel

Text: During Waldrip's competency trial, the District Attorney questioned expert witnesses, who had examined Waldrip after administering Miranda warnings, and Waldrip himself regarding Waldrip's unwillingness in his mental health examinations to discuss the facts of his crimes and regarding his request to consult with his attorney prior to one of those examinations. Waldrip argues that the District Attorney acted improperly and that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to object. In its order, the habeas court first addressed the underlying claim regarding the prosecutor's comments at the competency trial and found the claim to be barred as res judicata. The underlying claim is not res judicata, however, because, although this Court discussed the claim on direct appeal, it concluded that the issue had been procedurally defaulted by trial counsel's failure to object, not that the underlying claim was without merit. Waldrip, supra, 267 Ga. at 743, 482 S.E.2d 299. Furthermore, although this Court on direct appeal found the underlying claim to have been procedurally defaulted, that defaulted claim should be considered in this habeas case if cause and prejudice can be shown, and such cause, if any, could consist of trial counsel's ineffective assistance. See Turpin v. Todd, 268 Ga. 820, 826, 493 S.E.2d 900 (1997) (holding that ineffective assistance of counsel can satisfy the cause portion of the cause and prejudice). Such an ineffective assistance claim, which includes a showing both of counsel's deficient performance and of prejudice of constitutional proportions, could warrant relief on its own. See Smith, supra, 253 Ga. at 783-784, 325 S.E.2d 362. Thus, Waldrip's claim, in all of its various forms, depends on whether he can show that his trial counsel performed deficiently and that their deficient performance, if any, in reasonable probability changed the outcome of his trial proceedings. Id. For purposes of our analysis here, we assume arguendo that, contrary to the habeas court's conclusion, an objection to the State's arguments and questions would have been meritorious. See Black v. State, 261 Ga. 791(1), 410 S.E.2d 740 (1991) (discussing use by the prosecution at the competency trial and at the trial in the case-in-chief of a defendant's silence and consultation with counsel). Nevertheless, we find that if trial counsel had made such an assumedly meritorious objection, there would have been no reasonable probability of a different outcome in Waldrip's competency trial. The evidence of Waldrip's competence was overwhelming, and not even his own expert witness was willing to conclude that he was incompetent. Although, if his own arguments in the competency trial are to be believed, Waldrip suffered some degree of mental illness, experienced mild delusions, and at least once resorted to communicating with his counsel in writing because of his delusions of being monitored, the evidence did not plausibly demonstrate that he fell short of the legal standard of competence to stand trial. See Stripling v. State, 261 Ga. 1(3), 401 S.E.2d 500 (1991) (noting that a defendant is competent to stand trial if he or she is capable of understanding the nature and object of the proceedings and is capable of assisting his [or her] attorney with his [or her] defense); OCGA § 17-7-130. Thus we find that, had trial counsel objected and the allegedly improper argument and questioning been excluded, there is no reasonable probability that the jury would have found Waldrip incompetent. Finally, Waldrip argues that this Court's decision in Stanford v. Stewart, 274 Ga. 468(1), 554 S.E.2d 480 (2001) requires that we consider not whether a meritorious objection by trial counsel resulting in the exclusion of the complained of argument and questioning would have resulted in a different outcome, but rather whether an objection by trial counsel would have preserved the alleged error by the trial court for appeal. However, Waldrip misreads our decision in Stanford. The error we found in Stanford was not that the habeas court had inquired into the possible result on retrial if trial counsel had not waived the defendant's right to complain of an error on appeal. Instead, the error we found was that the habeas court had applied the wrong prejudice standard in making that inquiry, namely, that it had required a showing that a retrial would not necessarily result in acquittal rather than a showing of merely a reasonable probability of acquittal. (Emphasis supplied.) Id. at 470, 554 S.E.2d 480. In Waldrip's case, we follow our decision in Wadley v. State, 258 Ga. 465, 369 S.E.2d 734 (1988), where we explicitly held that the likelihood of a different result at trial if error is corrected by proper objection by counsel, rather than the likelihood of reversal on appeal, is the proper inquiry in an ineffective assistance of trial counsel claim. See also Landers v. State, 270 Ga. 189(4), 508 S.E.2d 637 (1998) (finding no reasonable probability that trial counsel's failure to object to the prosecutor's improper comments on the defendant's silence led to a different result). As we noted above, we believe that there would have been no reasonable probability of a different outcome in Waldrip's competency proceedings if trial counsel had objected and the argument and questioning at issue had been disallowed. Judgment affirmed.