Miles v. Ryan

Petitioner appealed the denial of his habeas petition, brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254. Petitioner challenged only his capital sentence and did not challenge his underlying felony murder conviction, arising from his role in a car-jacking. Petitioner argued that his counsel was ineffective at sentencing because she failed to focus on petitioner's drug addiction (rather than on intoxication), enlisted an unqualified expert, and failed to investigate petitioner's social history thoroughly. The court held that petitioner's counsel adopted a permissible sentencing strategy and that petitioner's arguments amounted to little more than a contention that his counsel should have adopted a different strategy. Under Strickland v. Washington, such arguments failed, and Martinez v. Ryan did not compel a different result.