Lezmond Mitchell v. United States

I would grant Mitchell’s petition for ha-beas relief with respect to the penalty, phase of his trial because he was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel. Counsel’s “good guy” defense was unreasonable in light of the facts and circumstances of the crimes Mitchell committed, and also because the minimal investigation underlying counsel’s choice of strategy was constitutionally deficient. Before delving into the myriad ways in which counsel performed deficiently, however, I would note that this is a highly unusual death-penalty case in several respects, all of which…