Campbell v. Reardon

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his murder conviction on grounds that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to interview three witnesses, who, according to defendant, would have said that defendant played no role in fatal attack on victim. Said failure, if true, would constitute ineffective assistance of counsel because: (1) counsel had duty to perform pretrial investigation before committing to any defense strategy; and (2) obvious exculpatory value of said eyewitnesses’ testimonies indicated that any decision not to interview said witnesses was unreasonable. However, remand was required to conduct evidentiary hearing to generate record as to whether trial counsel in fact failed to interview said witnesses, and whether said witnesses would have testified credibly and consistently with their affidavits and statements to police.