6th Amendment Violation – Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Fredrick A. Laux v. Dushan Zatecky

Case No.: 16-3282

Officials: RIPPLE, KANNE, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges

Focus: 6^th Amendment Violation – Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

In 2002, Fredrick Laux broke into his ex‐wife’s home and murdered her with a crowbar. A jury in Grant County, Indiana, decided that the aggravating circumstance of Laux’s crime—that he committed murder during a burglary—outweighed the primary mitigating circumstance—that he had no criminal history. The jury recommended a sentence of life without parole, which the state trial judge imposed. The Indiana state courts affirmed Laux’s convictions and sentence. After a post‐conviction hearing, they also rejected the claim that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In Williams v. Taylor, the Supreme Court spoke of a hypothetical “run‐of‐the‐mill state‐court decision applying the correct legal rule from our cases” that rejects a prisoner’s claim. 529 U.S. at 406. At bottom, that is this case. The district court was correct to deny habeas relief, and its decision is AFFIRMED.

Affirmed
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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.