Supreme Court of Delaware

Benson v. State

November 27, 2017

Summary

The Court affirmed the denial of Benson’s first postconviction-relief motion, holding that counsel was not ineffective for arguing lesser-included offenses in the alternative to a primary argument that Benson was not the shooter. Given the strong identification evidence, the alternative argument was a reasonable trial strategy, and Benson could not show a reasonable probability that a different closing argument would have changed the verdict.