Cartwright v. Caldwell

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the denial of habeas relief because Cartwright established that both his trial counsel and appellate counsel performed deficiently. Trial counsel unreasonably failed to present readily available evidence that contradicted the State’s central claim that Cartwright invented his alibi after his police interview, and that failure created a reasonable probability of a different trial outcome. Appellate counsel likewise unreasonably failed to introduce the evidence needed to prove the trial-counsel claim, and the prior appellate determination concerning that omission was binding under the law-of-the-case doctrine.