Court Opinion

ID: 9475773
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:37:41.983111+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:55.394693
License: Public Domain

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur in the judgment, but for reasons different than those relied upon by the majority. I would hold that petitioner’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim is barred by the deliberate bypass doctrine. The district court correctly held that petitioner’s counsel at his first state habeas hearing specifically waived this ground. It is also clear that counsel’s waiver was a strategic decision. The law of this circuit is well established that a waiver decision of counsel relating to trial strategy is binding upon his client, even in the absence of consultation with the client. Henry v. State of Mississippi, 379 U.S. 443, 451, 85 S.Ct. 564, 569, 13 L.Ed.2d 408 (1965); Thomas v. Zant, 697 F.2d 977, 987 (11th Cir.1983); Coco v. United States, 569 F.2d 367, 371 (5th Cir.1978).1

. In Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206 (11th Cir.1981) (en banc), this court adopted as binding precedent all of the decisions of the former Fifth Circuit handed down prior to the close of business on September 30, 1981. Id. at 1209.