Ruhl v. Hardy

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his first degree murder conviction on grounds that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to take steps to support defendant’s claim that victim’s girlfriend was actual culprit in murder. While defendant argued that his counsel failed to call as witnesses two detectives, who could cast doubt on girlfriend’s credibility, defendant failed to show that said detectives would have spoken to defendant’s counsel prior to trial, and said detectives could not have otherwise given opinion at trial regarding plaintiff’s credibility. Also, counsel was not ineffective for failing to call two witnesses to dispute govt. claim that girlfriend had no motive to kill victim, where counsel was unaware of existence of one witness, and where neither witness could have testified about relationship between girlfriend and victim at time of murder. Moreover, counsel’s failure to use telephone records to refute girlfriend’s version of her whereabouts at time of murder was not ineffective where five-minute discrepancy established by records would not have helped establish defendant’s defense.