550
Scalia, J., dissenting
fer unless Schlaich declared an intent to put Wiggins on the stand. Given counsel's chosen trial strategy to prevent Wiggins from testifying during the sentencing proceedings, the decision not to mention sexual abuse in the proffer is perfectly consistent with counsel's claimed knowledge of the alleged abuse.
Of course these reasons the Court offers—which range from the incredible up to the feeble—are used only in support of the Court's conclusion that, in its independent judgment, Schlaich was lying. The Court does not even attempt to establish (as it must) that it was objectively unreasonable for the state court to believe Schlaich's testimony and therefore conclude that he conducted an adequate investigation of Wiggins' background. It could not possibly make this showing. Wiggins has not produced any direct evidence that his attorneys were uninformed with respect to anything in his background, and the Court can muster no circumstantial evidence beyond the powerfully unconvincing fact that Schlaich failed to mention the allegations of sexual abuse in his proffer. To make things worse, the Court is still bound (though one would not know it from the opinion) by the state court's factual determinations that Wiggins' trial counsel "did investigate and were aware of [Wiggins'] background," Wiggins, 352 Md., at 610, 724 A. 2d, at 16 (emphasis in original), and that "[c]ounsel were aware that [Wiggins] had a most unfortunate childhood," id., at 608, 724 A. 2d, at 15. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254(e)(1).3 Because it is at least reasonable to be-3 The Court defends its refusal to adhere to these state-court factual determinations on the ground that "the Maryland Court of Appeals' conclusion that the scope of counsel's investigation . . . met the legal standards set forth in Strickland represented an objectively unreasonable application of our precedent." Ante, at 528-529. That is an inadequate response, for several reasons. First, because in the very course of determining what was the scope of counsel's investigation, the Court was bound to accept (as it did not) the Maryland Court of Appeals' factual findings that counsel knew of Wiggins' background, including his "most unfortunate childhood." And it is an inadequate response, secondly, because even
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