Filson v. Petrocelli

Issue: (1) Whether the admission of an expert opinion offered to rebut a defendant's mitigating evidence on the treatability of the defendant's psychiatric condition violated the fifth and sixth amendments solely because the state's expert conducted a pretrial evaluation of the defendant without advising the defendant of his right to remain silent or obtaining defense counsel's permission to conduct the evaluation; (2) whether a habeas petitioner can establish actual prejudice where the challenged testimony was an admissible expert opinion under state evidentiary law.