Cite as: 535 U. S. 685 (2002)
Stevens, J., dissenting
not calling Sue merely illustrates Dice's extraordinary fear of his adversaries. Dice's explanation for his failure to call Cone's other sister, Rita, is even more unsatisfying: "I think that we had a letter exchange or a phone call. My tactics do not necessarily involve putting the family on down here because, again, . . . I thought that we were in a position which we should say was tenuous from the outset." State Postconviction Tr. 136. His failure to call Cone's aunt is unexplained. His failure to offer into evidence the letter written by the victim's sister, offering her prayers for Cone, is also unexplained. See n. 2, supra.
Dice did not put Cone on the stand during the penalty phase, forfeiting the opportunity for him to express the remorse he apparently felt, see Tr. 1675. Dice testified that he discussed with Cone the possibility of testifying, but opted not to call him at the penalty phase because of fear that respondent might "lash out if pressed on cross-examination." Ante, at 700. He also claimed that Cone made the decision not to testify at the penalty phase because Cone feared the prosecutor. In Dice's words, Cone "realized that [the prosecutor] was a very intelligent and skilled cross-examiner and [Cone] felt that he would go off if he took the stand." State Postconviction Tr. 103. However, this explanation conspicuously echoes Dice's own fears about the prosecutor's prowess. Furthermore, respondent testified that Dice never "urged [him] as to the importance of testifying at the penalty stage," id., at 204, and Dice testified that his duties did not include urging Cone to testify, id., at 119. Given the undisputed evidence of Cone's intelligence and no indication that his behavior in the courtroom was anything but exemplary, it is difficult to imagine why any competent lawyer would so readily abandon any effort to persuade his client to take the stand when his life was at stake. Dice's claim that he did no more than permit Cone to reach his own decision about testifying in the penalty phase is simply not credible. Rather, it appears that Dice, fearful of the prosecutor, did not specifically discuss testifying in the penalty
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