In 1993, Demarcus Sears was convicted of kidnapping with bodily injury and armed robbery in connection with the death of Gloria Wilbur, who was kidnapped and robbed of her automobile in Georgia, raped in Tennessee, and murdered in Kentucky. The jury recommended a death sentence for the kidnapping with bodily injury after finding multiple statutory aggravating circumstances, including that the kidnapping with bodily injury was committed while Sears was engaged in the commission of the capital felony of murder.1 The trial court sentenced Sears to death for the kidnapping with bodily injury in accordance with the jury’s recommendation, see OCGA § 17-10-31 a, and to a life sentence for the armed robbery. After affirming each of his convictions and the life sentence for the armed robbery, this Court remanded the case for further proceedings related to Sears’ claim of jury misconduct at the sentencing phase. See Sears v. State, 268 Ga. 759 493 SE2d 180 1997. This Court subsequently affirmed Sears’ death sentence. See Sears v. State, 270 Ga. 834 514 SE2d 426 1999.
In 2000, Sears filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging among other claims that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel, and an evidentiary hearing was held in 2006. In an order filed on January 9, 2008 “2008 Order”, the habeas court denied Sears’ petition, and this Court denied Sears’ application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal upon concluding that it lacked “arguable merit.” Supreme Court Rule 36. However, in a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court of the United States granted Sears’ petition for a writ of certiorari and held that, with regard to Sears’ ineffective assistance of trial counsel claim, the habeas court failed to conduct a proper prejudice analysis under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 694 III B 104 SCt 2052, 80 LE2d 674 1984. See Sears v. Upton, __U. S.__ 130 SCt 3259, 3267 III, 177 LE2d 1025 2010. The Supreme Court then vacated this Court’s order denying Sears’ application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal and remanded the case for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion. Id. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s mandate, this Court vacated the habeas court’s judgment and remanded the case to the habeas court for further proceedings not inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s mandate.
