A. L. Lockhart, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction v. Bobby Ray Fretwell (506 U.S. 364)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 25, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 506 U.S. 364 · 113 S. Ct. 838
- Decided
- January 25, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Rehnquist
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case we decide whether counsel’s failure to make an objection in a state criminal sentencing proceeding — an objection that would have been supported by a decision which subsequently was overruled — constitutes “prejudice” within the meaning of our decision in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984). Because the result of the sentencing proceeding in this case was rendered neither unreliable nor fundamentally unfair as a result of counsel’s failure to make the objection, we answer the question in the negative. To hold otherwise would grant criminal defendants a windfall to which they are not entitled. In August 1985, an Arkansas jury convicted respondent Bobby Ray Fretwell of capital felony murder. During the penalty phase, the State argued that the evidence presented during the guilt phase established two aggravating factors: (1) the murder was committed for pecuniary gain, and (2) the murder was committed to facilitate respondent’s escape. Finding the existence of the first of these factors, and no mitigating factors, the jury sentenced respondent to death. On direct appeal, respondent argued, inter alia, that his sentence should be reversed in light of Collins v. Lockhart, 754 F. 2d 258 (CA8), cert. denied, 474 U. S. 1013 (1985). In that case the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that a…
Excerpt of a 15,430-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.