Coulter v. United States, 5:24-cv-00628

Germaine Coulter, Sr. was convicted on two counts of child sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit child sex trafficking, following a 2019 jury trial in the Western District of Oklahoma.
Coulter’s challenges to his conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal by the Tenth Circuit, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari.
Coulter filed a motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, raising claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, constitutional violations during trial and appeal, alleged prosecutorial misconduct, Brady/Giglio violations, and cumulative error.
Several claims related to matters previously raised or that should have been raised on direct appeal.
Coulter claimed his trial and appellate attorneys were ineffective for failing to pursue certain defenses and procedural protections, particularly regarding his mental health and the introduction of specific evidence.
The court denied the § 2255 motion and denied a certificate of appealability, holding no evidentiary hearing was required as the record conclusively showed no relief was warranted.

Issue	Coulter's Argument	Government's Argument	Held
Grounds 2–4 (Previously litigated issues)	Issues not properly decided on appeal or newly framed constitutional violations	Issues were or should have been raised on direct appeal, thus procedurally barred	Procedurally barred; not reviewed in § 2255
Ineffective assistance—trial counsel	Failure to pursue insanity defense & other trial errors by counsel	No reasonable basis for insanity defense; professional strategy guided decisions	No deficiency or prejudice under Strickland
Ineffective assistance—other specific actions	Failure to call witnesses, suppress evidence, object to trial errors	Decisions on witnesses and objections were strategic; no basis for suppression	No ineffective assistance; actions within professional norms
Brady/Giglio violations	Failure to disclose witnesses’ drug use impacting credibility	Drug use was known/addressed at trial; no suppressed material or materiality shown	No Brady/Giglio violation shown
Cumulative error	Multiple alleged errors deprived of fair trial	No base errors established, so cumulative error inapplicable	No cumulative error; claim rejected

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (two-prong test for ineffective assistance: deficient performance and prejudice)
United States v. Pritchard, 875 F.2d 789 (10th Cir. 1989) (issues decided on direct appeal generally not reconsidered on § 2255 motion)
United States v. Allen, 16 F.3d 377 (10th Cir. 1994) (failure to raise claims on appeal bars § 2255 review)
United States v. Gonzalez-Montoya, 161 F.3d 643 (10th Cir. 1998) (factors for Brady/Giglio violations)
United States v. Christy, 916 F.3d 814 (10th Cir. 2019) (cumulative error standard)