Black v. State

LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge.

Gary Black appeals from the denial of post-conviction relief from his conviction and death sentence for the first-degree murder of Jason Johnson. He alleges that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to impeach four witnesses with prior inconsistent statements that he argues showed that the murder was not the result of deliberation. The motion court found that these failures were not the result of trial strategy, but found no prejudice.

This Court agrees that, in the circumstances of this case, defense counsel’s failure to impeach these key witnesses with their…