Flakes v. Wisconsin

How later courts describe this case

• “decisions which fall squarely within the ambit of trial strategy ... if reasonably made, will not constitute a basis for an ineffective assistance claim”
• “Counsel’s decision not to call a witness, if supported by valid tactical considerations, does not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel.”
• “It is common knowledge that defense counsel quite often waive openings as a simple matter of trial strategy.”
• burden of showing substantial prejudice amounting to a miscarriage of justice
• “[T]he fact that [the defendant] ... had no duty to report [the] transactions ... is not the operative issue as to whether he agreed to unlawfully defraud the United States by impairing and obstructing [the IRS’s] lawful governmental function[] of collecting data....”