Donald J. Look v. Ronald Amaral

How courts have described this case

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

• holding that whether to request instruction on a lesser-included offense is a tactical decision of counsel
• refusing to find prejudice where the missing witness’s testimony could not have been exculpatory
• state trial court was not constitutionally required to give a lesser- included-offense instruction when defense counsel waived the instruction
• state trial court was not constitutionally required to give a lesser-included-offense instruction when defense counsel waived the instruction
• “Defense counsel may well have felt that, on the evidence, the jury would be more likely to convict on manslaughter than to acquit, but if given a choice only between a murder conviction and acquittal that an acquittal was more likely.”
• “Defense counsel may well have felt that, on the evidence, the jury would be more likely to convict on manslaughter than to acquit, but if given a choice only between a murder conviction and acquittal that an acquittal was more likely.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).