Defendant Who Poisoned Fiancee Can’t Blame Conviction on Lawyer

An ineffective assistance of counsel claim, based on the defendant’s failure to testify after his lawyer’s opening statement promised he would, was rejected by the Seventh Circuit Thursday.

Adetokunbo Fayemi was convicted for attempted murder after he poisoned his fiancee, Alice Minter, with thallium.

Fayemi’s lawyer told the jury that Fayemi would testify that Minter asked him to buy the thallium and was careless with it. But after the judge ruled Fayemi’s criminal record and his annotated book on how to poison people could be used to impeach him, he decided not to testify.

The trial evidence showed Fayemi bought ...