State Ex Rel. Vernatter v. Warden, West Virginia Penitentiary

MeGRAW, Justice:

Appellant Roy David Vernatter appeals the circuit court’s refusal to grant him habe-as corpus relief on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, where his primary allegation was that trial counsel were ineffective in failing to have arranged for him to undergo a psychiatric examination prior to his pleading guilty to first-degree murder. We affirm the judgment of the lower court, concluding that there is sufficient evidence in the record supporting the court’s finding that counsel undertook reasonable investigation of possible mental defenses prior to counseling…