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Fisher v. State

The defendant proved his ineffective assistance of counsel claims following his convictions for malice murder and other crimes, and the Supreme Court therefore reversed his convictions.

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Appellant Ronald L. Fisher was found guilty of malice murder and other crimes in connection with the shooting death of Derrick Cullins. At Appellant’s trial, the bulk of the evidence against him – including the only testimony directly identifying him as the shooter – came from David Lewis, who claimed that he was not involved in the crimes even though he admitted that he drove Appellant and the victim to the crime scene, was present during the shooting, and drove Appellant away afterwards.

Appellant’s trial counsel spoke before trial with Jonathan Clark, who said he would testify that Lewis was a drug dealer and was looking for the victim to collect on a debt and flashing a revolver – the type of gun used to kill the victim – two or three days before the shooting. Trial counsel intended to call Clark to testify on Appellant’s behalf but failed to subpoena or notify Clark, who then did not show up. Trial counsel also agreed to a jury instruction that the testimony of a single witness is generally sufficient to establish a fact, without requesting an instruction on the exception that if the witness is an accomplice, his testimony must be properly corroborated. We conclude that if Appellant’s counsel had not represented him deficiently in those two ways, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of his trial would have been more favorable to him.

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