Leamon White v. Don Roper

How courts have described this case

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

• concluding that counsel’s investigation was too superficial and counsel should have called two additional witnesses who would have provided stronger testimony in support of the defense’s theory
• concluding that a constitutional violation occurred because counsel’s superficial investigation did not reveal the comparative strength of two witnesses and counsel failed to call two witnesses who supported the defense’s theory
• an investigation that is “too superficial” to reveal the strengths or weaknesses of the government’s case is deficient
• also requiring proof of “prejudice” on an “ineffective assistance” claim based on deficient performance
• counsel’s decision to call witnesses generally “is presumed to be reasonable trial strategy.”
• “presumption of sound trial strategy… founders on the rocks of ignorance”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).