Shawn D. Powell v. Fidencio Guzman, Warden

During closing argument at Petitioner Shawn Powell’s trial, his trial counsel unreasonably conceded Powell’s guilt of vandalism and violation of a protective order. In so doing, she admitted that key witness testimony was truthful—critically undermining trial counsel’s chosen defense strategy of challenging the credibility of witnesses. Powell was prejudiced by trial counsel’s error. Indeed, the prosecution seized on trial counsel’s mistake during closing argument, highlighting the obvious weakness in the defense’s position that the jury should believe only those parts of the witness testimony that supported misdemeanor convictions but not the parts that supported felony convictions. In addition to performing deficiently during closing argument, trial counsel failed to investigate, discover, and present readily available evidence in support of Powell’s defenses to firstdegree burglary. The question presented is thus: did the Ninth Circuit’s denial of the Petition here so clearly misapply Strickland’s mandate regarding ineffective assistance of counsel as to call for reversal?