Richard H. Austin v. Ricky Bell, Warden

How courts have described this case

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

• finding that trial counsel failed to conduct an adequate investigation and failed to present any mitigation evidence
• finding counsel’s failure to investigate and present mitigating evidence at sentencing “an abdication of advocacy” amounting to ineffective assistance rather than a “strategic decision” because of the number and kinds of people willing to testify on petitioner’s behalf
• finding failure to investigate and present mitigation case undermined adversarial process
• finding counsel’s failure to investigate and present mitigating evidence at sentencing “an abdication of advocacy” amounting to ineffective assistance rather than a “strategic decision” because of the number and kinds of people willing to testify on petitioner’s behalf
• “To warrant habeas relief, jury instructions must not only have been erroneous, but also, taken as a whole, so infirm that they rendered the entire trial fundamentally unfair.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).