Does a defendant have a duty to conduct a reasonable pretrial investigation into all avenues of defense?
MultiRegion, United States of America
The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Tucker, 716 F.2d 576 (9th Cir. 1983):
16 The right to reasonably competent counsel imposes a correlative duty on defense counsel to undertake reasonable steps to investigate all avenues of defense. Wood v. Zahradnick, 578 F.2d 980, 982 (4th Cir.1978). The principle is so fundamental that the failure to conduct a reasonable pretrial investigation may in itself amount to ineffective assistance of counsel. See McQueen v. Swenson, 498 F.2d 207, 217-18 (8th Cir.1974).
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