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State v. Graves5/15/2002
2d 863, 865 (Iowa 1994). We believe the record here is adequate to address the issues.
Our review of these constitutional issues is de novo. State v. Oetken, 613 N.W.2d 679, 683 (Iowa 2000). To prevail, Graves must show (1) counsel failed to perform an essential duty, and (2) prejudice resulted. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S. Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L. Ed. 2d 674, 693 (1984).
With respect to Graves's claim that his attorney should have requested a limiting instruction, we find no breach of an essential duty in his failure to do so. As defense counsel conceded in his opening statement, the crime was gruesome. State witnesses and Graves himself testified that the victim was struck with a twenty-five pound weight and her throat was slit. Unchallenged photographs reflected this reality. Because the three challenged pictures were no more gruesome than the worst of the unchallenged evidence, we cannot conclude counsel was remiss in failing to seek a limiting instruction. Accordingly, we reject this ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim.
We also reject Graves's claim that defense counsel should have retained an expert to explicate his intoxication defense. Defense counsel was able to elicit evidence concerning the intoxication defense from a number of State witnesses, including a criminalist, a police officer, and Graves's former girlfriend. He established through the criminalist that Graves had alcohol in his system totaling .333 grams per milliliter. Additionally, defense counsel elicited testimony from Graves that Graves recalled drinking eight beers and three shots of liquor on the evening of the killing. An expert witness testifying to Graves's actual blood alcohol content on the night in question would have added little to the testimony of these other witnesses, who squarely placed the intoxication defense before the jury. For this reason, we find no breach of an essential duty.
We affirm Graves's conviction, judgment, and sentence.
AFFIRMED.
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