Jerry Dean King v. Mike Kemna, Superintendent Jeremiah (Jay) Nixon, Attorney General, State of Missouri

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,

with whom

McMILLIAN, RICHARD S. ARNOLD, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting.

Because I believe King was deprived of constitutionally adequate representation by counsel’s failure to adequately investigate and present a diminished capacity defense or to present evidence of King’s mental impairments at sentencing, I respectfully dissent. In my view, this failure is justified neither by the content of Robb’s report nor by this court’s precedent regarding counsel’s duty to investigate a client’s mental functioning. I also believe King’s federal petition was fairly…