Fred Marion Gilreath, Jr. v. Frederick J. Head

How courts have described this case

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

• explaining that “habeas petitioners must affirmatively prove prejudice because attorney errors come in an infinite variety and are as likely to be utterly harmless in a particular case as they are to be prejudicial”
• establishing, pre-Landrigan, a framework for demonstrating ineffective assistance of counsel when a defendant opposes the presentation of a penalty defense
• “[T]o show prejudice, Petitioner must show that—but for his counsel’s supposedly unreasonable conduct—helpful character evidence actually would have been heard by the jury.”
• Petitioner “must show that witnesses not presented at trial actually were available and willing to testify at time of trial.”
• “Petitioner must show a reasonable probability that — if Petitioner had been advised more fully about character evidence or if trial counsel had requested a continuance — Petitioner would have authorized trial counsel to permit such evidence at sentencing.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).