Virgil

MEMORANDUM *

Glenda Jo Virgil’s claim that she was a victim of ineffective assistance of counsel fails, because Virgil has not demonstrated that her counsel’s performance was constitutionally deficient.

The provisions of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AED-PA”) apply because Virgil filed her federal habeas petition after the statute’s effective date. See Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 481 , 120 S.Ct. 1595 , 146 L.Ed.2d 542 (2000). To warrant habeas relief, Virgil must show that the state court’s denials of her state habeas petitions were “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law.” Lounsbury v. Thompson, 340 F.3d 998, 1001 (9th Cir.2003) (citation omitted).

Investigation conducted by Virgil’s trial counsel was reasonable under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-88 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986). He reviewed the documents and files prepared and compiled by Virgil’s prior counsel; consulted with and retained the same investigator used by prior counsel; consulted a mental health professional; interviewed jurors from the aborted trial; and listened to audiotapes of prospective witnesses,…

dissenting.

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge.

I dissent. Glenda Jo Virgil is a battered woman who suffered four years of severe beatings and abuse at the hands of her common-law husband before she took his life in an act she says was committed in self-defense. Yet, because of her counsel’s constitutionally deficient performance, the jury did not learn about the Battered Woman’s Syndrome, its applicability to Virgil, or the extent of Garrett’s repeated abuse.

*998 Virgil’s counsel had in his possession evidence that Virgil’s father beat her repeatedly to the point of hospitalization and raped her when she was only twelve years old. Counsel knew that Virgil’s abuse from her father was just her first physically and sexually abusive relationship in a line of abusive relationships ending with Garrett, a man who, allegedly, among other things, stabbed her in the neck with a broken coke bottle and in the leg with a hunting knife, shoved her hand through a glass window, and kicked her repeatedly as she lay by the side of the road for such an extended period of time that she believed she would die.

Virgil’s prior counsel had retained three mental health experts who were prepared to testify…