Opinion ID: 57390
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Childhood Background

Text: Generally accepted standards of competence require that counsel conduct an investigation into petitioner's background. Miniel, 339 F.3d at 344. Trial counsel's failure to present mitigating evidence during the penalty phase is not per se ineffective assistance. Ransom v. Johnson, 126 F.3d 716, 723 (5th Cir.1997). Instead, [s]trategic choices made after a less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reason able professional judgments support the limitations on investigation. In other words, counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary. Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 521, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690-91, 104 S.Ct. 2052). Ronald Mock, Smith's trial counsel, stated that he interviewed many of Smith's family members and childhood acquaintances. In an affidavit submitted in state court, trial counsel provided a list of interviewees. Joyce Jones, Smith's second trial counsel, contended that in preparation for Smith's trial, they conducted an extensive investigation and interviewed various witnesses including his family members, associates, sheriffs deputies, and his parole officer. She also maintained that they interviewed Smith on numerous occasions about his social, educational, employment, criminal, and health history. According to Mock, Wilbert and Carolyn Smith, Smith's mother and sister, were important in order to educate the jury about the environment in which the Applicant existed and was raised. Deputy Gentry was important to show that the Applicant could exist peacefully in a prison setting. Finally, Smith's own testimony showed the jury that he was determined to become a better person and that he was very sorry for the crimes. In these federal post-conviction proceedings, Smith presents affidavits from nine family members attesting to their willingness to have testified on his behalf had trial counsel requested their testimony. The question arises of whether a sufficient investigation should have included interviews with these people and whether counsel reasonably relied on Smith's sister and mother to convey the mitigating evidence contemplated in Smith's petition. The state habeas court made no factual findings specific to the investigation of Mock and Jones into Smith's family history. Moreover, Smith did not submit affidavits from his family to the state court or set forth the details of any alleged child abuse in his habeas petition. Instead, based on the affidavit of Mock and Jones, the state habeas court found that trial counsel believed that the applicant's relatives were much more persuasive in bringing out the influence of historical and environmental factors on the commission of the crimes than an expert witness would have been. Hence, as stated above, even if Smith's ineffective assistance of counsel claim is not procedurally barred, our consideration of these affidavits would be impermissible because the statements offer material facts not presented in the state habeas court that fundamentally alter his claim. In other words, Smith deprived the state court of the opportunity to evaluate the credibility of these statements and whether the information contained in the affidavits could have affected Smith's sentence; therefore, we cannot consider the affidavits. See Joyner v. King, 786 F.2d 1317, 1320 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1010, 107 S.Ct. 653, 93 L.Ed.2d 708 (1986) (finding that the policies of comity and federalism underlying the exhaustion doctrine require that new factual allegations in support of previously asserted legal theory be first presented to the state court); see also Dowthitt, 230 F.3d at 748; Graham v. Johnson, 94 F.3d 958, 968 (5th Cir.1996); Brown, 701 F.2d at 495-96. Without the affidavits, Smith's ineffective assistance of counsel claim, based on his good institutional behavior and diminished capacity due to prolonged drug use, fails to demonstrate any deficiencies in trial counsel's investigation. Accordingly, we deny habeas relief on this claim.