David Freeman was sentenced to death for murdering Sylvia and Mary Gordon in 1988. In federal habeas proceedings, he claimed trial counsel inadequately investigated and presented mitigation, including evidence of childhood abuse, neglect, poverty, housing instability, and mental-health problems. Freeman’s Alabama postconviction petition had alleged generally that counsel failed to investigate his background and mental-health history but pleaded few supporting facts; he supplied extensive new allegations only in federal court. The Eleventh Circuit held that the Alabama courts had adjudicated the state petition on the merits when they rejected it as insufficiently pleaded, making AEDPA deference applicable. It treated the federal factual expansion as part of the same exhausted claim but, under AEDPA, assessed the state decision on the record and allegations before the state court. Because Freeman did not show that the state court unreasonably applied Strickland or unreasonably determined the facts based on that limited petition, the court affirmed denial of habeas relief. Chief Judge Pryor concurred in the judgment, emphasizing that Freeman’s new mitigation allegations could not be considered without supporting evidence and had come too late.