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Wackerly v. Workman

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PUBLISH

Before LUCERO, TYMKOVICH, and GORSUCH, Circuit Judges.

This case arises out of a 1996 crime in which Donald Wackerly planned and executed the murder of a stranger for petty cash. After trial, an Oklahoma jury found Mr. Wackerly guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. An appeal and post-conviction habeas corpus petition before state courts followed, but neither succeeded. Mr. Wackerly then filed a federal habeas petition in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. The district court denied this petition, too. Mr. Wackerly now appeals the district court’s disposition to us, and in doing so presents a single issue for our decision: whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to investigate and then present certain evidence to the jury during the penalty phase of his trial. Like the district court before us, we discern no reasonable probability that the evidence he points to would have altered his sentence. Accordingly, we affirm.

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