Jefferson v. Upton

Petitioner Lawrence Jefferson, who has been sentenced to death, claimed in both state and federal courts that his law*285yers were constitutionally inadequate because they failed to investigate a traumatic head injury that he suffered as a child. The state court rejected that claim after making a finding that the attorneys were'advised by an expert that such investigation was unnecessary. Under the governing federal statute, that factual finding is presumed correct unless any one of eight exceptions applies. See 28 U. S. C. §§2254(d)(l)-(8) (1994 ed.). But the Court of Appeals considered only one…