UNITED STATES COURT of APPEALS for the FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 91-4606 BETTY LOU BEETS
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT _______________________ No. 91-4606 _______________________ BETTY LOU BEETS, Petitioner-Appellee, versus WAYNE SCOTT, Director Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Respondent-Appellant. _________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas _________________________________________________________________ (September 22, 1995) Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, KING, GARWOOD, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, JONES, SMITH, DUHÉ, WIENER, BARKSDALE, EMILIO M. GARZA, and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges.* EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge: The issue that provoked en banc rehearing of this capital murder case is whether a habeas corpus petitioner was deprived of her Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel because her attorney committed arguable ethical violations when he obtained a contract for media rights to her story and failed to withdraw and testify as a defense witness. More precisely, the * Judges Stewart and Benavides were not members of the Court when this case was argued and have elected not to participate. Judge Parker is recused. court has divided over the issue whether these facts should be measured by the Strickland standard for an attorney's deficient performance1 or by the Cuyler standard adopted for the special case of attorney conflicts in cases of multiple client representation.2 On reconsideration, we approve Judge Higginbotham's analysis in a concurrence to the panel opinion that Strickland more appropriately gauges an attorney's conflict of interest that springs not from multiple client representation but from a conflict between the attorney's personal interest and that of his client. Judged under Strickland, the attorney's actions in this case were neither deficient nor prejudicial.
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