Wiggins v. Smith, Warden
- Decided
- June 26, 2003
- Docket
- 02-311
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 5,961 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- concluding that counsel’s failure to adequately investigate prior to deciding not to introduce mitigating evidence in capital case constituted ineffective assistance — Donald Eugene Lambert v. James Blodgett, Donald Eugene Lambert v. James Blodgett (2004)
- holding that the question for a federal habeas court is whether the state court’s decision was “objectively unreasonable” — Jeffrey Welton Nunes v. G.A. Mueller, Warden (2003)
- holding that ineffective assistance occurred where counsel introduced “no evidence of [the defendant’s] life history” despite existing evidence of brutal childhood abuse — Getsy v. Mitchell (2007)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
[*514] Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.
Petitioner, Kevin Wiggins, argues that his attorneys’ failure to investígate his background and present mitigating evidence of his unfortunate life history at his capital sentencing proceedings violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. In this case, we consider whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit erred in upholding the Maryland Court of Appeals’ rejection of this claim.
I
Statutes cited
Cite this
Wiggins v. Smith, Warden, 539 U.S. 510 (2003)Read the full opinion
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