Couch v. Booker

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding trial counsel ineffective for failing to take “simple steps” to prepare to rebut the State’s causation evidence
• finding trial counsel ineffective in part for failing to present expert testimony refuting the State’s theory on cause of death
• state court unreasonably rejected habeas petitioner’s argument that counsel should have investigated causation defense where counsel ignored readily available evidence
• counsel was deficient for failing to investigate alternate causes of death, where evidence of those alternate causes was in the record
• “How can one exercise reasonable professional judgment about whether to stop a causation-based investigation before reading the key report that might support it?”
• “It is particularly unreasonable to fail to track down readily available and likely useful evidence that a client himself asks his counsel to obtain.” (citation omitted)

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).