In re Crew, 52 Cal. 4th 126

Crew was convicted of murder with a special-ccircumstance finding for financial gain and sentenced to death; automatic appeal affirmed.
Crew filed a habeas petition alleging ineffective assistance of trial counsel at the penalty phase for inadequate investigation/presentation of mitigating evidence.
The court appointed a referee to conduct an evidentiary hearing to resolve disputed factual questions about counsel's investigation and mitigation presentation.
The referee heard four days of testimony; findings described trial counsel’s investigation as minimal and focused mainly on positive background, with no penalty-phase experts retained.
The referee found substantial mitigating evidence existed (family dysfunction, abuse, mental health/dependence history) but concluded defense failure to discover/present it did not prejudice the outcome.
California Supreme Court independently reviewed the referee’s report, rejected the ineffective-assistance claim, and discharged the order to show cause.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether trial counsel's penalty-phase performance was ineffective	Crew contends counsel failed to investigate/present mitigating evidence.	State argues any deficiency did not prejudice the penalty phase outcome.	Not prejudicial; no reasonable probability of a different result.
Whether Crew hindered the penalty-phase investigation by failing to disclose abuse	Defense argues nondisclosures limited mitigation discovery.	State contends defendant’s statements did not reveal material abuse information at the time.	Referee erred on hindrance; substantial evidence supports some hindrance finding, but final prejudice analysis remains adverse to relief.
Whether admission/consideration of childhood sexual abuse evidence was proper and prejudicial	Mitigating evidence of sexual abuse by mother would have supported mitigation.	Prosecution argued causal link between abuse and murder is unsupported; cross-examination limits were proper.	No reversal; prejudice not shown; abuse evidence did not undermine confidence in the penalty-phase result.

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. Supreme Court 1984) (establishes performance prejudice standard for ineffective assistance claims)
In re Bolden, 46 Cal.4th 216 (Cal. 2009) (collateral habeas review; burden of proof and standard of review)
In re Johnson, 18 Cal.4th 447 (Cal. 1998) (independent review of referee findings in habeas context)
In re Scott, 29 Cal.4th 783 (Cal. 2003) (petitioner’s right to be called as a witness in habeas setting)
People v. McPeters, 2 Cal.4th 1148 (Cal. 1992) (prosecution's right to psychiatric/psychodiagnostic evaluation)
In re Lucas, 33 Cal.4th 682 (Cal. 2004) (prejudice inquiry in habeas review; standard for assessing trial-counsel effectiveness)