Bobby Ray Fretwell v. Larry Norris, Director, Arkansas Department of Corrections

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

The State of Arkansas appeals the grant of federal habeas relief setting aside Bobby Ray Fretwell’s death sentence. The State raises a single issue, whether the district court erred in concluding that Fretwell’s trial counsel provided ineffective assistance at the penalty phase by not investigating and presenting testimony by Fretwell’s mother and siblings concerning the physical and mental abuse Fretwell suffered at the hands of his father as a child. Concluding that counsel’s performance did not fall below the standard of constitutional reasonableness articulated in…