The Petitioner[Cyntoia] waived her Miranda rights and gave a statement to police in which she said that on the night of August 6, 2004, she was walking near a Sonic Drive-In when the victim, whom she did not know, picked her up in his truck. Id. He drove her to the Sonic, they ordered food, and the victim offered to let her spend the night at his home. The Petitioner accepted the victim's offer, and they went to his house. at *9. There, the victim showed the Petitioner some guns, and they got into bed together. Id. The victim whispered to and touched the Petitioner and reached underneath the bed. Id. The Petitioner thought the victim was reaching for a gun, so she pulled a .40 caliber handgun out of her purse and shot him. at *10. She took money out of the victim's wallet and two of his guns, drove his truck to the Walmart parking lot, and had someone drive her to the hotel where she was later arrested. The Petitioner denied that she was a prostitute or that she had sex with the victim.

The nude victim was lying face-down on the bed in a large pool of blood, and his "hands were beneath his face, his fingers 'kind of partially interlocked,'" as if he had been sleeping. Id. at **4, 15. An autopsy revealed that he had been shot in the back of the head and that he did not have any defensive wounds.

After our supreme court denied the Petitioner's application for permission to appeal, she filed a timely pro se petition for post-conviction relief based, in pertinent part, on the denial of the effective assistance of counsel and newly discovered evidence "that Fetal -2- Alcohol Syndrome played a part in [her] actions on the night in question." The postconviction court appointed counsel, and counsel filed an amended petition, maintaining that the Petitioner received the ineffective assistance of counsel and alleging that her life sentence was unconstitutional.

The Petitioner testified that if she had testified at trial, she would have stated the following: Months before she killed the victim, the Petitioner ran away from her adoptive parents' home.

She was staying with different people in Nashville and using drugs and alcohol. In July 2004, she met "Cut Throat," who was twenty-four years old, and began using cocaine and staying in a hotel with him. At first, "Cut" was nice to her. However, he began verbally and physically abusing her. He also sexually assaulted her and made her prostitute herself.

The Petitioner had to give the money she earned to Cut. She said that he was violent to her, that he almost killed her one time by choking her, and that she was scared of him. The Petitioner testified that on the day of the victim's death, she was "pretty sure" she was using drugs because "[t]hat is all I ever did." She said, "Cocaine definitely, I probably smoked some weed too." The Petitioner left the hotel and started walking toward the Sonic.

The victim stopped his truck and asked if she needed a ride and was hungry. The Petitioner got into his truck, and the victim parked at the Sonic. He asked her if she was "up for any action," meaning he wanted to pay her for sex, and the Petitioner told him that she would have sex with him for $200. The victim offered to pay her $100, and they ultimately agreed that he would pay her $150. She said that the victim was "an old Caucasian man" and that she thought he was about fifty years old. However, he turned out to be "forty-something."

The detectives' interview of the defendant was recorded on videotape, and this recording was played for the jury at trial. At the beginning of the interview, the defendant gave her name as "Cyntoia Denise Mitchell" and her date of birth as January 29, 1985. Based on this information, the detectives had the defendant arraigned as an adult;