Stone v. South Carolina

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Bobby Stone shot and killed Charlie Kubala of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office. Stone filed an application for post-conviction relief (PCR) alleging he received ineffective assistance of counsel. The PCR court denied relief. Stone filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, which was granted as to three sets of issues: (1) whether Stone's trial and appellate counsel were ineffective in dealing with victim impact evidence; (2) whether Stone's trial counsel was ineffective in investigating and presenting evidence of brain damage; and (3) whether Stone's trial counsel was ineffective in investigating and presenting evidence of the accident theory of the case. Finding trial and appellate counsel's performance was reasonable in almost every respect, the Supreme Court affirmed: counsel's performance did not meet an objective standard of reasonableness, and thus was deficient under the first prong of "Strickland." However, as to each of these failures, Stone did not prove a reasonable probability the outcome would have been different as required by the second prong. View "Stone v. South Carolina" on Justia Law