[DOWNLOAD] "Hovey v. Ayers" by Supreme Court of Alaska " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Hovey v. Ayers
- Author : Supreme Court of Alaska
- Release Date : January 11, 2006
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 95 KB
Description
Richard Hovey appeals the district courts denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He seeks relief from his 1982 conviction and sentence of death for first degree murder during the course of a kidnapping. He asserts that more than a dozen errors infected his trial, principally: denial of the due process right to be present at a mid-trial hearing on his attorneys competence; ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt and penalty phases; Griffin error, see Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609 (1965); Brady error, see Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963); and exclusion of forward-looking evidence to support a proper penalty-phase jury instruction. Because Hovey admitted that he had taken the young victim against her will and committed the acts that resulted in her death, Hovey cannot demonstrate the requisite prejudice to succeed on his claims of error in the guilt phase. The district court, therefore, correctly rejected all of Hoveys guilt-phase claims, finding a number of errors but determining that none is alone or cumulatively sufficient to merit reversal of Hoveys conviction. We hold, however, that the district court erred in concluding that the deficient performance of counsel in the penalty phase did not prejudice Hovey. Counsels failure to investigate Hoveys mental condition at the time of the murder and to adequately prepare Hoveys penalty-phase expert witness sufficiently undermines our confidence in the verdict of death as to require us to reverse the denial of his petition as to the penalty phase. Therefore, we affirm in part and reverse in part the district courts judgment denying Hoveys habeas corpus petition.