McMullen v. Dalton

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant’s habeas petition that challenged his statutory maximum sentence of fifty years on Indiana charges of cocaine and marijuana possession, where defendant alleged that his trial counsel was ineffective by failing to adequately investigate defendant’s childhood background/mental state for purposes of generating mitigation evidence. While Dist. Ct. properly found that trial counsel’s failure to investigate defendant’s background and mental status constituted deficient performance, Dist. Ct. erred in finding that defendant failed to establish prejudice arising out of counsel’s failure to investigate potential mitigation evidence, where Ct. of Appeals found that defendant had established requisite prejudice, since: (1) investigation in defendant’s background/mental state could have yielded information to combat state’s successful request for imposition of statutory maximum sentence; (2) defendant’s proffered evidence of type, frequency and severity of childhood abuse, as well as mental health concerns was different in kind to information on said topics in presentence report; and (3) record contained factual error that sentencing court was well aware of defendant’s mental health concerns. Remand was required, though, for hearing on issue as to whether trial court had strategic reason not to conduct investigation into defendant’s background/mental status.