183510P.pdf   08/18/2021  Scott McLaughlin  v.  Anne Precythe
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  18-3510
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis   
   [PUBLISHED] [Kobes, Author, with Shepherd and Erickson, Circuit Judges] 
   Prisoner case - Habeas - Death Penalty. Counsel is not deficient when they 
   reasonably rely on the professional community to vet an expert and 
   McLaughlin could not show, under the circumstances presented, no competent 
   lawyer could have made the choice to trust the legal community's appraisal 
   of the psychiatric witness; even if further investigation of his 
   background would have been prudent, it is not clear that the investigation 
   should have covered the fact that many years previously the witness 
   falsified lab reports; in sum, the district court erred in finding that 
   McLaughlin had established counsel did not perform reasonably by not 
   investigating the psychiatric witness's credentials; further, there was 
   not a substantial likelihood that the calling of a alternative psychiatric 
   witness would have led the a different result because the evidence in 
   aggravation of the offense far outweighed the evidence in mitigation even 
   if it was bolstered by the proposed witness's testimony; the state habeas 
   court did not err in finding that McLaughlin was not prejudiced by 
   sentencing counsel's failure to call a psychiatrist; as McLaughlin's 
   failure to investigate claim was meritless, post-conviction counsel could 
   not be ineffective by failing to raise it; the district court erred in 
   concluding the sentencing instructions violated Mills v. Maryland, 486 
   U.S. 367 (1988) and that Missouri's capital sentencing system violates 
   Ring v. Arizon, 536 U.S. 584 (2002); the grant of habeas relief is 
   reversed and the case is remanded for proceedings consistent with the 
   opinion. Judge Erickson, concurring.