In 1987, Abdul Haliym (then known as Wayne Frazier) was sentenced to death by an Ohio court for his role in the murders of Marcellus Williams and Joann Richards in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. After exhausting his state law remedies, Haliym filed a federal habeas petition asserting some 20 grounds for relief, all of which were denied in federal district court. Today in Haliym v. Mitchell, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit unanimously rejected Haliym’s appeal with regard to his conviction, but ruled favorably, by a 2-1 vote, on Haliym’s claim that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel during the mitigation phase of his sentencing.
Judge Clay, joined by Judge Merritt, concluded that Haliym was denied effective assistance of counsel because his attorney “failed to discover important mitigating information that was reasonably available and suggested by information already within their possession,” and that Haliym demostrated prejudice from this failure.
had counsel conducted a thorough investigation, they could have presented a dramatically different picture of Petitioner