USA - Arizona. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered new evaluation for Eric Mann

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered new evaluation for Eric Mann, 53, Hispanic. The court of appeals reversed a district court judgment. The court held that a state post-conviction court incorrectly applied the more-likely-than-not standard when it concluded that a capital defendant suffered no prejudice from counsel’s deficient performance at sentencing. Eric Mann was tried on two charges of first-degree murder and sentenced to death on February 1, 1995 for the Nov. 23, 1989 killings of Richard Alberts and Ramon Bazurto. Mann’s court-appointed counsel called no witnesses at trial. The defense theory was that Mann acted in self-defense when he shot the two victims. After exhausting state court appellate and post-conviction relief, Mann petitioned the court of appeals for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing, among other things, that counsel’s performance at sentencing was deficient due to his failure to investigate and present reasonably available mitigating evidence. The court of appeals reversed in part, holding that the state post-conviction court applied an incorrect standard when considering Mann’s claim of ineffective assistance at sentencing. The court reversed and remanded with instructions to grant the writ of habeas corpus conditional upon new sentencing in state court. The case is Mann v. Ryan.