Here is our vocabulary word for the day. Sheri Qualters reports in the National Law Journal:

On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit heard arguments in Shuman v. Spencer, a habeas corpus case in which a man convicted of double homicide is seeking a new trial, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. The appellant, Robert Shuman, claims his trial lawyer failed to raise the defense that he killed two business associates because his ingestion of Zoloft caused a drug-induced state of agitation called akathisia.

The "deference" standard applicable on federal habeas corpus should be more than sufficient to reject this claim at the present stage of the litigation.