Rufus Washington v. Gerald Hofbauer

How courts have described this case

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

• recognizing that ineffective assistance of counsel can establish cause and prejudice necessary to overcome procedural bar
• finding that the misconduct was severe and improper because the “character attack pervaded the closing argument and rebuttal.”
• finding that the misconduct was severe and improper because the “character attack pervaded the closing argument and rebuttal.”
• noting that, before assessing whether defense counsel was ineffective for failing to object to prosecutorial misconduct, habeas court must first determine whether prosecutor in fact committed misconduct
• determining that counsel’s failure to object to prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument warranted habeas relief under Strickland
• noting that counsel’s failure to object to improper character evidence arose from incompetence and ignorance of the law where counsel failed to understand that evidence of the defendant’s character was admissible for some uses and not others

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).