Charles C. Greiner v. Ronald Wells

WESLEY, Circuit Judge.

This case concerns the proper evaluation of defense counsel’s performance under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). We hold that trial counsel’s inability to recall why he abandoned a possible defense strategy — when queried seven years and seven hundred cases after petitioner’s trial — does not establish a Sixth Amendment violation where a justification appears on the record.

I

Ronald Wells is an inmate in the Green Haven Correctional Facility, incarcerated following his conviction in New York Supreme Court (Kings County) for…