On 1-20-10, the Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 to upheld the death penalty for Holly Wood - and Alabama inmate - whose attorney declined to present evidence about mental deficiencies to a jury during the sentencing portion of the trial. The court ruling was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, making this her first full opinion on capital punishment since she joined the Supreme Court. She said that while the wisdom of the lawyer’s decision might be “debatable,” it was not unreasonable to think he had made a strategic decision that kept out more damaging evidence about his client.

It was argued that courts should apply only subsection 2254(d)(2), and reserve subsection (e)(1) for cases that involve extrinsic evidence. In other words, the the State of Alabama should not have to rebut the state court’s factual findings by clear and convincing evidence; instead, he should only be required to show that the findings were objectively unreasonable in light of the entire state court record.

Justice Stevens wrote a dissenting opinion that said,

Wood’s experienced counsel made a perfectly sensible decision not to introduce Dr.Kirkland’s report into evidence or to call him as a witness. That was a strategic decision based on their judgment that the evidence would do more harm than good. But it does not follow from this single strategic decision that counsel also made a strategic decision to forgo investigating powerful mitigating evidence of Wood’s mental deficits for the penalty phase. On the contrary, the only reasonable factual conclusion I can draw from this record is that counsel’s decision to do so was the result of inattention and neglect. Because such a decision is the antithesis of a “strategic” choice, I would reverse the decision of the Court Of Appeals.

While it’s interesting that Justice Sotomayo upheld the death penalty her first time out of the gate, I tend to agree with Justice Stevens.  Holly Wood’s mental retardation might have made a difference to the jury when sentencing.  If I were on the jury, I would have had a harder time giving the death penalty to someone who was mentally retarded.