William Wesley Goad, Appellant v. State of Tennessee, Appellee

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that William Wesley Goad was denied effective assistance of counsel at the sentencing phase of his capital trial because his lawyers, though aware before trial of a Veterans Administration evaluation diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder, failed to investigate that evidence and never subpoenaed the evaluating psychiatrist or the expert they intended to call, leaving the jury with only lay testimony that Vietnam had changed him. The Court further held the deficiency was prejudicial: the omitted expert proof would have supplied a psychological causal link between Goad's Vietnam service and his later crimes, would have blunted the single aggravating circumstance (prior violent felonies committed after his return from Vietnam), and created a reasonable probability the jury would have declined to impose death. It accordingly reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals, vacated the death sentence, and remanded for a new sentencing hearing. No separate opinions were filed.