Can a defendant's attorney fail to call an expert witness?

The failure to call an expert witness can be grounds for a successful ineffective assistance of counsel claim. In United States v. Tarricone, 996 F.2d 1414 (2d Cir.1993), the defendant's attorney never consulted a handwriting expert, who might have proven that the defendant never signed the "throughput agreement" at issue in the case. During the trial, the agreement was "important to the jury" and testimony that the defendant never signed the agreement would have cast doubt on the credibility of two other witnesses. The court held that the defendant had a "viable" claim of ineffective assistance warranting an evidentiary hearing, citing "the primary reason for our conclusion [as] the significance attached to the handwriting on the throughput agreement throughout the trial." Id. at 1419. Similarly, in Sims v. Livesay, 970 F.2d 1575 (6th Cir.1992), the defendant's attorney did not hire an expert to analyze the bullet holes and powder patterns on the quilt a homicide victim held in her hands at the time of her shooting; an expert's analysis would have revealed the distance between the gun and her body at the time of the shooting and might have supported the defendant's contention that the shooting was accidental. The court found his counsel ineffective. Id. at 1580-81.