By: Derek Hawkins//November 23, 2016//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Cortez Jones v. Victor Calloway
Case No.: 15-1174
Officials: EASTERBROOK, ROVNER, and SYKES, Circuit Judges
Focus: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Ruling on Jones’s § 2254 petition, the district court excused the procedural default based on new evidence of Jones’s actual innocence—namely, Stone’s testimony. After an evidentiary hearing, the judge concluded that the state appellate court unreasonably applied Strickland and that trial counsel’s failure to present Stone’s testimony was constitutionally ineffective representation. The judge accordingly granted the petition and ordered Jones retried or released.
We affirm. The judge’s decision to excuse the procedural default was sound, as was his merits ruling. Trial counsel’s failure to call Stone cannot reasonably be classified as a mere matter of trial strategy within the range of objectively reasonable professional judgments. Omitting the available testimony of the man who admits to being the lone shooter was both constitutionally deficient performance and prejudicial.
Affirm