Court Opinion

ID: 9470130
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:57:57.797504+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:45.019874
License: Public Domain

HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Petitioner’s capital murder case was tried before an experienced and capable state trial judge. The conviction was affirmed by the Arkansas Supreme Court which concluded that the evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to support the conviction. Harris v. State, 262 Ark. 506, 558 S.W.2d 143, 145 (1977). A state post-conviction petition that raised essentially the same basic issues as are raised here was denied.
The majority concedes, ante, at 206, that “[n]o single error made by the petitioner’s appointed counsel is of constitutional dimension.” Yet by a process which appears to me to involve undue reliance on inference, conjecture and the youth of appointed counsel, the majority proceeds to elevate the alleged errors of counsel to a level of constitutional magnitude.
In the totality of the circumstances, including the fact that despite strong evidence of guilt the jury verdict did not call for imposition of the death penalty, I am unwilling to find ineffectiveness of counsel or prejudice of constitutional significance. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.