Terry Allen Bouchillon v. James A. Collins, Director Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division

How courts have described this case

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

• noting that “there is a duty to investigate which cannot be abridged because counsel is only appointed, not retained”
• holding attorney’s decision not to investigate defendant’s mental health after learning of prior institutionalizations is not tactical decision where mental health was only defense
• holding the prejudice prong satisfied when a psychologist testified that due to a clinically recognized mental disorder the defendant was incompetent to plead guilty
• explaining that counsel’s lack of investigation after notice of past institutionalization constituted deficient performance
• holding trial counsel provided ineffective assistance without deciding actual competency or incompetency
• upholding finding that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, “a clinically recognized, mental disorder,” rendered petitioner incompetent to plead guilty in 1982

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).