Patterson v. State

Summary

The court affirmed Patterson’s felony-murder conviction and life sentence, rejecting his ineffective-assistance claims, his challenge to impeachment of a defense witness with an old conviction, and his request for a new trial based on a photograph discovered after trial. The court held that one ineffective-assistance claim was forfeited, while the remaining claims failed because counsel’s challenged decisions were reasonable, the alleged deficiencies caused no prejudice, or the proposed evidence was inadmissible or cumulative. The court also concluded that any assumed impeachment error and other assumed deficiencies were harmless individually and cumulatively.