Summary
U.S. Court of Appeals case involving a California murderer who committed horrible sex crimes against a young woman and a teenage girl and murdered them both. The verdict of guilt was affirmed on appeal, on state habeas corpus, and by a federal district judge on federal habeas corpus, but then a three-judge panel of the court of appeals reversed in a decision that was supposedly two-to-one, even though one of the two judges in the majority had died before the final decision. The “majority” held that defense counsel had been ineffective in not raising a diminished capacity defense, contrary to decision of every judge who previously looked at the case. CJLF filed a brief in support of the state’s petition for rehearing, arguing that the "majority" had applied the wrong standard for judging whether a lawyer’s decision undermines confidence in the result. The petition was granted, and the case will be reheard by three living judges.
