Demarcus Sears was on Georgia’s death row after convictions for kidnapping with bodily injury and armed robbery; the jury imposed death for the kidnapping. Before trial, counsel sought a psychiatric evaluation after observing erratic behavior and learning of Sears’s mental-health and developmental problems. Georgia’s Sabel rule required defense disclosure of court-funded mental-health experts, including experts the defense did not call, without equivalent disclosure by the prosecution. Fearing that an evaluation would create evidence for the State, counsel withdrew the request and presented a penalty case portraying Sears’s childhood as stable; federal habeas proceedings later developed evidence of brain damage and serious cognitive and psychiatric impairments. The Eleventh Circuit held that the state court unreasonably rejected Sears’s due-process challenge to Sabel under Wardius and unreasonably assessed the record. It found the error harmful because the jury twice reported an 11-to-1 deadlock in favor of death before ultimately recommending death, creating grave doubt whether the withheld mitigation could have changed the sentence. The court reversed denial of habeas relief on that claim, ordered a new penalty-phase proceeding, and affirmed the denial of relief on the remaining claims.