Hildwin v. State
Annotate this CaseAppellant was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 for the murder of a certain individual and sentenced to death on direct appeal. This appeal followed from the denial of postconviction relief alleging ineffective assistance of counsel in the second penalty-phase proceeding. At issue was whether appellant had ineffective assistance of penalty-phase counsel for failing to investigate, prepare, and present mitigating evidence and in failing to object to improper remarks made by the prosecutor in closing argument. The court held that, based on a review of the evidentiary hearings and the new penalty-phase trial, in light of the aggravators and mitigators, appellant had not demonstrated that confidence in the outcome of the penalty-phase proceeding had been undermined and therefore, appellant had not demonstrated prejudice. The court also held that while the prosecutor at length described the choices that appellant had made in his life, arguably improper comments, they were relatively brief and were not emphasized by the prosecutor. Accordingly, the court concluded that appellant had not demonstrated prejudice on this claim and therefore, his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel must fail.
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