United States v. Marvin Powell, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3701

Powell was convicted of federal drug and firearms offenses and sentenced to 300 months’ imprisonment, and his conviction was affirmed on direct appeal.
Powell filed a § 2255 motion asserting ineffective assistance of trial counsel, alleging failure to challenge a juror bias based on a pre-trial encounter.
A juror allegedly told Powell’s father that Powell would be okay and that he should give Powell a good kick in the butt, implying potential bias.
Powell’s counsel listened to the account but began trial before pursuing the issue; Powell later claimed counsel failed to raise the matter or seek removal.
The district court denied relief; on appeal, this court granted a certificate of appealability on the juror-bias issue and reviewed the claim de novo under Strickland.
The court held the juror’s statement was ambiguous and counsel’s decision not to pursue it fell within the range of reasonable professional assistance.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Did counsel’s failure to raise juror-bias after the ambigous remark amount to ineffectiveness?	Powell	Aguirre	No; performance reasonable under Strickland

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (establishes two-prong ineffective-assistance standard)
Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209 (U.S. 1982) (impartiality and voir dire related standards for jurors)
Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717 (U.S. 1961) (pretrial publicity does not alone rebut impartiality)
Wells v. Murray, 831 F.2d 468 (4th Cir. 1987) (impartiality presumption and juror bias considerations)