Mosley v. Butler

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant’s habeas petition challenging his murder conviction on grounds that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to call certain witness who was available at his trial and could have placed him in area away from fatal fire that killed victim. Failure of trial counsel to call said witness was not part of reasonable trial strategy, where trial counsel had not interviewed said witness prior to trial. Moreover, defendant successfully showed that there was reasonable probability that outcome of trial would have been different, since said witness would have bolstered other testimony (that trial court found to be weak) that placed defendant in different area. Moreover, trial counsel could not just rely on alleged incredible nature of state’s witness to form defense of defendant’s case, and record otherwise showed that defense counsel was unprepared to call any witnesses once his motion for judgment of acquittal had been denied.