Adam Dean Brown v. Florida Department of Corrections

On July 29, 2012, Adam Dean Brown and his friend, Nicholas Snow, were travelling in a vehicle that crashed. Brown and Snow were both intoxicated. Both were ejected from the vehicle upon impact. The State of Florida charged Brown with driving under the influence resulting in serious bodily injury. The sole issue at trial was whether Brown or Snow drove the vehicle on the night of the crash. The question presented is: Did Petitioner satisfy the burden for the issuance of a certificate of appealability on his ineffective assistance of counsel claims where his trial attorney failed to (1) object when the prosecutor argued in rebuttal that Brown’s injuries were consistent with him being the driver, where no evidence supported that argument; (2) offer evidence that corroborated the proposed testimony of a key witness, where the trial court excluded her testimony based on the lack of assurances of reliability; and (3) retain an accident reconstruction expert for trial, where a post-conviction accident reconstruction showed that Brown was not the driver?