Jose Angel Garcia v. New Mexico, et al.

Whether Petitioner Garcia’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel was deprived under the following circumstances: • By failing to call the pathologist who conducted the autopsy to testify, Petitioner Garcia’s trial counsel did not present to the jury exonerating evidence that the fatal injuries were green in color, indicating they were not fresh and could not have been inflicted by him. The state’s witness—who did not conduct the autopsy, and relied on photographs—told the jury he did not see the green coloration in photographs from the autopsy. • By failing to call a medical expert on the cause of death, Petitioner Garcia’s trial counsel failed to refute the prosecution witness’s erroneous testimony about the fatal injuries. • By failing to call an expert on false confessions, Petitioner Garcia’s trial counsel presented no evidence showing that a teenager’s sleep-deprived statement at 5:00 am at the police station was neither credible nor admissible. • By unreasonably failing to object to a faciallyinvalid jury instruction on the charge of first-degree child abuse resulting in death, Petitioner Garcia’s trial counsel allowed the jury to be misinformed on the law. • By failing to assert that Petitioner Garcia’s state constitutional rights were violated in various ways, his trial counsel abandoned meritorious legal grounds for dismissal of the charges in the trial court or reversal of the conviction on direct appeal.