Ellis Bell v. A.L. Lockhart, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

Ellis Bell appeals from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He argues that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel, in violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, because his attorney failed to move for a directed verdict at his state-court trial. Ordinarily every criminal defense lawyer routinely moves for a directed verdict at the close of the prosecution’s case and at the close of all the evidence, and normally it is counsel’s duty to urge every plausible theory of defense. Here, however, counsel believed that such a motion, if…