RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 19a0205p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT CHRISTA GAIL PIKE, ┐ Petitioner-Appellant, │ │ > No. 16-5854 v. │ │ │ GLORIA GROSS, Warden, │ Respondent-Appellee. │ ┘ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga. No. 1:12-cv-00035—Harry S. Mattice, Jr., District Judge. Argued: October 17, 2018 Decided and Filed: August 22, 2019 Before: COOK, GRIFFIN, and STRANCH, Circuit Judges. _________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: Stephen A. Ferrell, FEDERAL DEFENDER SERVICES OF EASTERN TENNESSEE, INC., Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellant. Richard D. Douglas, OFFICE OF THE TENNESSEE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Stephen A. Ferrell, FEDERAL DEFENDER SERVICES OF EASTERN TENNESSEE, INC., Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellant. Jennifer L. Smith, OFFICE OF THE TENNESSEE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. GRIFFIN, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which COOK and STRANCH, JJ., joined. STRANCH, J. (pp. 15–18), delivered a separate concurring opinion. No. 16-5854 Pike v. Gross Page 2 _________________ OPINION _________________ GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge. Petitioner Christa Gail Pike, a Tennessee death-row inmate, appeals the district court’s denial of her petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Because we conclude that the state court’s determination that she is unable to establish prejudice on her claims of ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase of her capital trial was not an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law, we affirm. I. A. This case began with the horrific and brutal 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Pike and Slemmer were both students at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, Tennessee at the time. State v. Pike, 978 S.W.2d 904, 907–08 (Tenn. 1998). They had a strained relationship; Pike claimed that Slemmer “had been ‘trying to get [her] boyfriend’ and . . . ‘running her mouth’ everywhere.” Id. at 909. These bad feelings unfortunately resulted in the following events, as the Tennessee Supreme Court explained in a detailed opinion: [O]n January 11, 1995, [Pike], a student at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, told her friend Kim Iloilo, who was also a student at the facility, that she intended to kill another student, Colleen Slemmer, because she “had just felt mean that day.” The next day, January 12, 1995, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, along with Slemmer, and two other Job Corps students, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, walking away from the Job Corps center toward 17th Street. At approximately 10:15 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, Peterson, and Shipp return to the Center. Slemmer was not with them. Later that night, Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Slemmer and that she had brought back a piece of the victim’s skull as a souvenir. Pike showed Iloilo the piece of skull and told her that she had cut the victim’s throat six times, beaten her, and thrown asphalt at the victim’s head. Pike told Iloilo that the victim ...
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