A unanimous Supreme Court says a convicted killer whose lawyer persuaded him not to pursue an insanity defense does not deserve a new trial.
The high court, in an opinion Tuesday by Justice Clarence Thomas, says Alexandre Mirzayance did not establish that his lawyer's performance was ineffective, which would have been a basis for granting him a new trial.
The decision overturns a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that said the lawyer was so ineffective that Mirzayance's first-degree murder conviction could not stand.
Mirzayance was convicted of fatally shooting and stabbing his 19-year-old cousin, Melanie Ookhtens, …
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