Ryan v. Jones
Issue: (1) Whether a “non-neutral†mental health expert must be appointed to assist the defense at sentencing; (2) whether defense counsel performs deficiently by relying on the description of childhood abuse provided by the defendant and his mother and stepfather, and not additionally interviewing the defendant’s sibling regarding the same type of abuse; (3) whether a federal court errs by considering only new mitigation evidence, without considering rebuttal evidence and evidence of aggravating circumstances, in determining whether the additional mitigation evidence would have changed the sentencing decision; and (4) whether the Ninth Circuit erred by ruling that a district court, in considering ineffective assistance of counsel claims following an evidentiary hearing, should not evaluate the credibility of expert witnesses who testified at the hearing regarding evidence a petitioner claims should have been presented at sentencing.
Judgment: GRANTED. VACATED and REMANDED on April 18, 2011. for further consideration in light of Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. ___ (2011).
Briefs and Documents
Certiorari-stage documents
