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Sixth Circuit Overturns Sentence of Death Due to Ineffective Counsel

By Douglas A. Berman

In Van Hook v. Anderson, available here, the Sixth Circuit reversed a decision by the district court and granted the habeas petition of Robert Van Hook, who was sentenced to death for a 1985 murder.  The Circuit reversed the death sentence, finding ineffective assistance of counsel during the mitigation phase of Van Hook?s trial.  In holding that this ineffectiveness violated Van Hook?s Sixth Amendment rights, the court stated:[Van Hook?s] counsel was deficient [first,] by failing to fully investigate and present as evidence all available mitigating factors; second, by failing to secure or attempt to secure an independent mental health expert to testify that the crime was the product of a mental disease; and third, by mistakenly introducing and also failing to object to proscribed evidence [a victim impact statement] that was clearly damaging to Van Hook?s case...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 04, 2008 (boomark / email).