Styers

DISCUSSION

I. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Styers contends that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel based on counsel’s failure to move to strike the jury panel on the grounds of prejudicial pre-trial publicity.

A. Pre-Trial Publicity

The body of Christopher Milke was found by police in the evening of Sunday, December 3, 1989. The following day, the Arizona Republic, a Phoenix area newspaper, reported on its front page that Milke, Styers, and Roger Scott were arrested and charged with first degree murder. The paper further reported that Milke was not present when the boy was killed, but conspired with “the other suspects to have her son killed.” The following day, another article appeared on the front page of the paper speculating as to the possible motives for the kill- ing, including life insurance proceeds and possible abuse. However, the article also reported that the medical examiner who performed the autopsy found no indication of either 3 Although the district court certified additional allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel, Styers does not raise these allegations in his opening brief. We deem them waived. Eberle v. City of Anaheim,…