544
Scalia, J., dissenting
ment cannot possibly be sustained, particularly in light of the state court's factual determinations that bind this Court under § 2254(e)(1). The Court's analysis of this point rests upon a fundamental fallacy: that the state court "clearly assumed that counsel's investigation began and ended with the PSI and the DSS records," ante, at 529. That is demonstrably not so. The state court did observe that Wiggins' trial attorneys "had available" the presentence investigation (PSI) report and the Maryland Department of Social Services (DSS) reports, Wiggins, supra, at 608-609, 724 A. 2d, at 15-16, but there is absolutely nothing in the state-court opinion that says (or assumes) that these were the only sources on which counsel relied. It is rather this Court that makes such an assumption—or rather, such a bald assertion, see ante, at 527 (asserting that counsel "cease[d] all investigation" upon receipt of the PSI and DSS reports); ante, at 524 (referring to "[c]ounsel's decision not to expand their investigation beyond the PSI and DSS records").
Nor could the Maryland Court of Appeals have "assumed" that Wiggins' trial counsel looked no further than the PSI and DSS reports, because the state-court record is clear that Wiggins' trial attorneys had investigated well beyond these sources. Public-defender investigators interviewed Wiggins' family members, see Defendant's Supplemental Answer to State's Discovery Request filed in No. 88-CR-5464 (Cir. Ct. Baltimore Cty., Md., Sept. 18, 1989), Lodging of Respondents, and Wiggins' trial attorneys hired a psychologist, Dr. William Stejskal (who reviewed the DSS records, conducted clinical interviews, and performed six different psychological tests of Wiggins, ibid.; App. 349-351), and a criminologist, Dr. Robert Johnson (who interviewed Wiggins and testified that Wiggins would adjust adequately to life in prison, id., at 319-321). Schlaich also testified in the state postconviction proceedings that he knew information about Wiggins' background that was not contained in the DSS or PSI reports—such as the allegation that Wiggins' mother
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