Irick v. Bell

OPINION

ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.

Billy Ray Irick is on Tennessee’s death row for the rape and murder of seven-year-old Paula Dyer. Irick appeals the district court’s dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He argues that prosecutors failed to provide defense counsel with a statement of the victim’s mother, in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and that the prosecutor committed misconduct during closing argument in the trial’s penalty phase. Finding merit in neither argument, we AFFIRM.

I

In April…