In 1988, the State sought the death penalty against appellant Robert Danenberg based on charges of malice murder and aggravated assault arising out of the fatal shooting of Deborah Lamb. Danenberg pled guilty to the crimes in 1989 in exchange for a life sentence and a term of years. He subsequently sought habeas relief, which was denied. On its first appearance in this Court, we issued an order granting Danenberg’s application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal and remanding the case for consideration of counsel’s performance with regard to psychiatric evidence in light of Turpin v. Bennett , 270 Ga. 584 513 SE2d 478 1999. Danenberg twice amended his petition and in January 2005, the habeas court granted relief, finding that Danenberg’s counsel provided ineffective assistance because counsel failed to reasonably investigate the possible side effects of medication Danenberg was taking at the time of the crimes and because counsel was operating under a conflict of interest at the time of the plea. The warden appeals, and for the reasons that follow, we affirm. A review of the record in this case reveals that after Danenberg’s arrest, he was committed to Central State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Danenberg retained an experienced criminal attorney who had been practicing law since 1973. During his investigation into the crimes and possible defenses, counsel learned that Danenberg had previously experienced minor mental health problems and had taken anabolic steroids as part of his weight-lifting regimen. Counsel retained the services of Dr. Harrison Pope, a nationally recognized mental health expert with a subspecialty in the effects of steroid use, and provided Dr. Pope with all information relevant to Danenberg’s history, including a list of medications Danenberg was using at the time of crimes. Included on the list was a prescription for Medrol, a corticosteroid prescribed to reduce muscle inflammation that Danenberg was taking for injuries he received in an automobile accident shortly before the crimes. Dr. Pope focused on Danenberg’s use of anabolic steroids and opined that these drugs could have caused Danenberg to have a psychotic reaction rendering him legally insane at the time of the crimes. Based on this information, counsel intended to present an insanity defense and to use Danenberg’s mental health history in mitigation. Instead, this information was provided to the State and a plea agreement reached.
A few years after his incarceration, Danenberg again took Medrol after it was prescribed for him by a prison physician. The evidence supports the habeas court’s finding that Danenberg’s ingestion of Medrol induced a severe psychotic episode that was observed and documented by a prison physician, who afterwards opined that if Danenberg had been taking Medrol at the time of offenses, he would have had a valid defense of insanity and involuntary intoxication. Based on the testimony of the prison physician and the similar testimony of other expert witnesses, the habeas court determined that in rare circumstances individuals taking Medrol have severe adverse psychotic reactions and that evidence of such reaction could have substantially benefitted Danenberg during plea negotiations and at trial. Accordingly, the habeas court concluded that counsel’s failure to thoroughly investigate the medical consequences of Danenberg’s ingestion of Medrol and to question mental health professionals about the effects of Medrol constituted ineffective assistance of counsel.
