Hittson v. GDCP Warden

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The district court granted petitioner, convicted of murder and sentenced to death, a certificate of appealability (COA), on his Brady claims, and this court expanded the COA to include his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim - that counsel failed to present expert testimony relating to petitioner's background and mental condition. The court then expanded the COA a second time after the Supreme Court decided Trevino v. Thaler, which recognized certain circumstances in which a federal court may excuse a habeas petitioner's failure to properly raise his claims in state court. After reviewing the record and entertaining the parties' arguments in open court, the court reversed the district court's grant of habeas corpus relief setting aside petitioner's death sentence based on the State psychologist's testimony, affirmed the district court's denial of his Brady claims and ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim; and held that Trevino does not enable him to raise new claims that he failed to litigate in state court. View "Hittson v. GDCP Warden" on Justia Law