Chad Lee v. Ryan Thornell

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

CHAD ALAN LEE, No. 09-99002

Petitioner-Appellant, D.C. No. 2:01-CV-02178- v. EHC

RYAN THORNELL,

OPINION

Respondent-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Earl H. Carroll, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 14, 2023 San Francisco, California

Filed June 11, 2024

Before: Consuelo M. Callahan, Jacqueline H. Nguyen, and Daniel A. Bress, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Bress SUMMARY*

Habeas Corpus / Death Penalty

The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of Chad Lee’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition, and the denial of Lee’s motion for leave to amend, in a case in which Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for three murders. In Claim 2, Lee argued that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective at sentencing because he failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence that Lee suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effect. He maintained that his in utero exposure to alcohol caused organic brain…