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Carty v. Thaler

Under Strickland v. Washington, the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel is denied when a defense attorney's performance falls below an objective standard of reasonableness and thereby prejudices the defense. In the present case, although the husband?s testimony was obviously damaging to appellant?s defense, appellant did not show that but for trial counsel's deficient failure to advise the husband of his marital privilege there was a reasonable probability that she would not have been convicted of capital murder. 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 08-70049, 09-17-2009

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Published opinion

Before KING, DENNIS, and OWEN, Circuit Judges.

A Texas jury convicted and sentenced to death petitioner–appellant Linda Anita Carty for the intentional murder of Joana Rodriquez during the course of a kidnaping of Rodriguez and her newborn son. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence and denied post-conviction relief. Carty then filed this federal habeas petition under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied substantive relief, denied Carty’s request for an evidentiary hearing, and dismissed her case. It then granted a certificate of appealability (“COA”) for two substantive claims. The first is whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to notify Carty’s ostensible common-law husband of his marital privilege not to testify. The second is whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to present additional mitigation evidence in the punishment phase. The district court also granted a COA for the procedural issue that prevented adjudication of those substantive claims-whether Carty exhausted state court remedies.*fn1 Carty’s appeal is now before us. We affirm the district court’s judgment denying Carty relief.

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