Moody v. Thomas (89 F. Supp. 3d 1167, 2015)

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION

L. SCOTT COOGLER, District Judge.

This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 filed by Petitioner Walter Leroy Moody (“Moody”), now incarcerated at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama. Moody challenges the validity of his 1996 convictions for capital murder and first degree assault and sentences of death and life without parole in connection with the December 1989 pipe-bomb murder of Judge Robert S. Vance of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Upon thorough consideration of the entire record and the briefs submitted by the parties, the Court finds that Moody’s petition for habeas relief is due to be denied.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1187 I. THE OFFENSE CONDUCT..

1193 II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY...

1194 III. STANDARDS OF FEDERAL HABEAS REVIEW.

1194 A. Exhaustion of State Remedies and Procedural Default.

1196 B. Overcoming Procedural Default .

1196 C. AEDPA Review of State Court Decisions Under § 2254(d) and (e)

1198 D. The Burden of Proof and Heightened Pleading Requirements for Habeas Petitions.

E. The General Standard for Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims.1198

IV. MOODY’S SUBSTANTIVE CLAIMS.1200

A. Moody’s claim that the trial court deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.1200

1. The allegation that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel by finding that Moody freely and voluntarily waived his right to the assistance of counsel at the hearing on August 2, 1994 and in other proceedings prior to his trial.1207

2. The allegation that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when it failed to find and appoint counsel after Moody “withdrew” his waiver of his right to counsel.1212

3. The allegation that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when it failed to ensure he had “meaningful access” to legal materials necessary for self-representation.1214

4. The allegation that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when it failed to hold a hearing on Moody’s pre-trial ineffective assistance of counsel claim.1214

5. The allegation that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel by refusing to grant a continuance of at least one year — which was requested by Moody after jury selection had already begun at his trial — to allow his newly-obtained pro bono counsel time to prepare his case.1215

6. The allegation that the foregoing alleged errors collectively deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel .1220

B. Moody’s claim that the trial court deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when it declined to appoint “standby counsel” to assist Moody when he was removed from the courtroom during his trial .1220

C. Moody’s claim that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses when it removed him from the courtroom for • disruptive behavior during his trial.1227

D. Moody’s claim that the trial court violated his Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights when it failed to protect his rights as a pro se litigant.1227

E. Moody’s claim that he was convicted based on the improper admission of his prior crimes and acts in violation of his Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights .1228

1. The allegation that the trial court improperly permitted evidence to be introduced against Moody regarding his efforts to overturn his 1972 conviction on federal charges of possessing a pipe bomb which led to his conviction in 1990 on federal charges of suborning perjury and obstructing justice.1229

2. The allegation that the trial court improperly permitted evidence to be introduced regarding Moody’s other bombings-the pipe bomb mailed in December 1989 to Robert Robinson in Savannah, the pipe bomb mailed to the courthouse for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and the pipe bomb mailed to the Jacksonville office of the NAACP.1229

F. Moody’s claim that he was denied a fair and impartial jury in violation of his Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.... 1230

1. The allegation that the prosecutor improperly told one prospective juror,K.C.,during individual voir dire that everything Moody had been telling her during voir dire was “a complete and unadulterated lie” and that Moody had been convicted of perjury and of paying people to lie.1230

2. The allegation that the trial court prejudiced Moody by informing prospective jurors of his problems with pretrial counsel, specifically that he had caused his court-appointed attorneys to withdraw, had thereafter rejected the court’s repeated offers to appoint him new counsel, and that he had on numerous occasions sought to change attorneys on the eve of trials.1280

3. The allegation that the trial court improperly polled each juror ' about Moody’s request for a continuance, asking each juror whether “considering the statement made by Moody and the trial court regarding Moody’s representation status, he or she believed the case should be delayed or continued”.1231

4. The allegation that the trial court failed to ensure that the State did not use its peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner.1231

5. The allegation that the foregoing alleged errors collectively deprived Moody of his right to a fair trial .1231

G. Moody’s claim that his Fifth,Sixth,Eighth,and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when the State introduced the following: evidence pertaining to Moody’s undergraduate and law school records, including that he pursued a bachelors degree in chemistry and that he took courses in chemistry, biochemistry, and physics, and that he had completed about half the course work required to obtain a law degree; evidence of his litigation history and prior interactions with attorneys; and evidence of his alleged racial attitudes in the form of testimony from an ex-girlfriend that he had made positive remarks about George Wallace, Lester Maddox, and the John Birch Society, and that he had made negative remarks about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Maynard Jackson.1231

H. Moody’s claim that his death sentence violates Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428 (2002) .1232

I. Moody’s claim that the state withheld exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194 (1963).1239

V. MOODY’S INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL CLAIMS.1247

A. Moody’s claim that he did not receive effective assistance of trial counsel.1247

1. The allegation that the Alabama statute barring interim payments for attorneys representing indigent defendants denied Moody his right to effective assistance of counsel and expert assistance... .1247

2. The allegation that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to adequately investigate the facts surrounding the offense .1254

3. The allegation that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move for a change of venue and request a life-qualified jury.1255

4. The allegation that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate the status of Moody’s mental health before moving to withdraw from representation.1256

5. The allegation that trial counsel was ineffective for operating under a conflict of interest when the Attorney General’s office provided $35,000 in funds as payment.1256

6. The allegation that the foregoing alleged errors, collectively, established a violation of Moody’s right to effective assistance of trial counsel.1257

B. Moody’s claim that he did not receive effective assistance of appellate counsel.1257

1. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to argue that the trial court should have sua sponte changed the venue of the trial.1257

2. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to argue that the trial court conducted insufficient voir dire based on media coverage surrounding the crime,which allegedly warranted a more in-depth voir dire process.1258

3. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to • assert claims of prosecutorial misconduct.1259

4. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to assert a claim that the State withheld exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland.,.1264

5. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to assert a claim that the State used race-based peremptory strikes during voir dire in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712 (1986).'.1264

6. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to assert a claim of ineffective assistance of pre-trial counsel.1266

7. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to argue that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.1267

8. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to “adequately” argue that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when it failed to appoint “standby counsel” for Moody when he was removed from the courtroom.1268

9. The allegation that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to argue that the trial court deprived Moody of his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses when it removed him from the courtroom for disruptive behavior during trial... .1269

10. The allegation that the foregoing alleged errors, collectively, deprived Moody of his right to effective assistance of appellate counsel.1269

VI. MOODY’S CLAIM THAT HE IS “ACTUALLY INNOCENT”.1270

VII. CONCLUSION .1274

I. THE OFFENSE CONDUCT

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals (hereinafter, the “ACCA”), in its opinion on direct appeal from Moody’s conviction, set out the background facts of this case, as follows:

Around the second week of December 1989, four pipe bombs were sent through the United States mails to different locations in the southeastern United States. On December 16, 1989, the package containing one of those pipe bombs was delivered to the Mountain Brook, Alabama, residence of Judge Vance. The package was addressed to Judge Vance and showed the name and Newnan, Georgia, address of one of his judicial colleagues as the return addressee. When Judge Vance opened the package, the bomb inside detonated, killing him almost instantly. Judge Vance’s wife, Helen Vance, was seriously injured by the blast. The pipe bomb was constructed of a steel pipe approximately five and one-half inches in length and one and one-half inches in diameter, sealed at each end with threaded end caps; it contained smokeless gunpowder and a homemade detonator fashioned from the hollowed-out barrel of a ballpoint pen. The device was designed to explode when the lid of the box in which it was contained was opened. Numerous nails had been secured to the pipe with rubber bands; the nails served as projectiles upon detonation.

Two days later, on December 18,1989, Robert Robinson, a civil rights attorney in Savannah, Georgia, was killed after opening a package containing a similar pipe bomb, which had been delivered to Robinson’s Savannah law office. That same day, a third pipe bomb was received at the courthouse of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia. A court security officer using an X-ray machine discovered the device, which was disarmed by bomb-squad technicians before it could detonate. The following day, on December 19,1989, a fourth pipe bomb was received — this one at the Jacksonville, Florida, office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (“NAACP”); the bomb was discovered and disarmed before it could injure anyone.FNl

FN1. The pipe-bomb packages sent to Robinson and to the Jacksonville office of the NAACP bore false return addresses from Warner Robins, Georgia. The pipe-bomb package sent to the federal courthouse bore a false return address from Atlanta. Testimony presented at Moody’s trial

indicated that the four pipe bombs were very similar in construction and design. All of the bombs had been placed in reinforced cardboard boxes that had been painted inside with black latex paint. All were delivered in packages wrapped in brown paper, tied with string, wrapped with the same kind of tape, posted with the same kind of priority mail stamps, and addressed with the same kind of mailing labels. The addresses on all the mailing labels appeared to have been typed with the same typewriter. All of the bombs were constructed of steel pipes filled with Hercules Red Dot brand smokeless gunpowder. While the pipe that made up the bomb' that killed Judge Vance was sealed at both ends with end caps that had been screwed into place, the ends of the other three bombs had been sealed with welded end plates that were joined by a steel rod extending through the center of each pipe. The steel rods were secured at the ends by hexagonal nuts. Nails had been attached, by rubber bands, to the outside of each pipe, and each bomb had the same kind of triggering mechanism and detonator. All of the bombs used C-cell batteries as their electrical source, and all had the same type of modified battery holder in them. Typed notes threatening death were contained inside the boxes in which three of the four bombs had been sent. (Only the bomb sent to the federal courthouse in Atlanta was not accompanied by such a note.) There were numerous other similarities in the details of the bombs’ composition, in the construction of the boxes that held the bombs, and in the packaging of the devices.FN2 Based on the many similarities, forensic investigators believed that all four bombs were made and sent by the same person.

FN2. Among the other similarities were the following: all of the devices had been packed with paper towels with a goose pattern on them; all had pieces of aluminum pie pans used in them; all had the same size paper clips in them; all had heavy-gauge aluminum wire in them; all had CCI brand pistol primer material in them; and all had the same electrical system in them, with the same color.

In the days that followed the killings of Judge Vance and Robert Robinson, every judge on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals received typed letters in which the sender took credit for the bombings and threatened the recipients with assassination, “because of the federal courts’ calloused [sic] disregard for the administration of justice,” in the name of an organization known as “Americans for a Competent Federal Judicial System.” Similar death-threat letters were received at the Atlanta and Jacksonville offices of the NAACP. A separate typed death-threat letter, addressed to news anchor woman Brenda Wood, was received at the WAGA television station in Atlanta.

The death-threat letters were all signed “010187” and specified that the writer was using this number as a secret code and that it was not to be disclosed to the public. All of the letters were postmarked from Atlanta and were posted with a 25-cent American-Flag-Over-Yosemite stamp. The packages containing three of the four pipe bombs were posted with the same kind of American-Flag-Over-Yosemite stamp. An analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) concluded that the letters received by the judges on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and at the Atlanta and Jacksonville offices of the NAACP had all been prepared with the same manual typewriter used to type the addresses on the mailing labels affixed to all four of the pipe-bomb packages. The letter addressed to Brenda Wood had been prepared with a different typewriter.

Testimony revealed that on August 21, 1989, about four months before the murder of Judge Vance, the NAACP regional office in Atlanta had received through the mail a tear-gas bomb, the triggering mechanism and packaging of which were similar in numerous respects to the four pipe bombs mailed in December 1989. The tear-gas bomb exploded when an NAACP employee opened the box in which it was packaged, filling the office with tear gas. Like three of the four December 1989 pipe bombs, the tear-gas bomb was accompanied by a typed death-threat note. The package containing the tear-gas bomb bore a false return address from Atlanta.

In the days following the receipt of the tear-gas bomb at the NAACP office, various news media outlets throughout the eastern United States received copies of a typed letter in which the anonymous sender complained about the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ “callous disregard for justice”; in the letter, the sender issued a “Declaration of War” and threatened nerve-gas attacks against “densely populated cities.” All of the letters were posted with a 25-cent American-Flag-Over-Yosemite stamp. FN3 It was determined that the letters had been prepared with the same manual typewriter used to type the address on the mailing label affixed to the package containing the tear-gas bomb.

FN3. The letters were all postmarked on August 21, 1989 — the day of the tear-gas bombing — and all had been sent from an Atlanta area post office. None contained a return address.

The State presented evidence indicating that the August 1989 tear-gas bomb and the four December 1989 pipe bombs — including the one that killed Judge Vance — were all constructed and sent by the appellant, Walter Leroy Moody, Jr., as part of Moody’s declared “war” on the court system. That war stemmed from Moody’s conviction in federal court, almost 17 years earlier, on charges of possessing a pipe bomb. In May 1972, a pipe bomb had exploded in Moody’s residence in Macon, Georgia. That bomb, which had been contained inside a package addressed to an automobile dealer who had repossessed Moody’s car, had exploded when opened by Moody’s then wife, seriously injuring her. Moody had been arrested and charged with the manufacture and possession of a pipe bomb. During his 1972 trial on those charges in federal court, Moody had taken the stand in his own defense and maintained that a man named “Gene Wallace” FN4 had secretly planted the bomb in Moody’s home, allegedly to harm Moody. The jury had found Moody guilty of possessing a pipe bomb, although it had acquitted him of the charge of manufacturing it. Moody served three years in the federal penitentiary for the conviction.

FN4. Gene Wallace’s existence has never been documented; from all indications, he was an invention of Moody’s mind.

After he was released from prison, Moody became obsessed with overturning his conviction, believing that it had tarnished his good name and that it stood in the way of his aspirations of becoming a lawyer. Several years before he went to prison, Moody had attended law school without finishing, and in the mid 1980s he inquired into resuming those studies; however, he learned that a felony conviction would disqualify him from practicing law in Georgia. In addition to seeing his conviction as standing between him and a legal career, Moody had convinced himself that he had been unfairly convicted — that he was the victim of an immense conspiracy involving, in his mind, corrupt law-enforcement officers, the trial judge, the prosecutor, and even his own appointed counsel. Moody’s sense of aggrieved victimization fueled what was to become his long-running and continuing quarrel with the legal system — particularly with the federal courts in the Eleventh Circuit.

Sometime in 1985, Moody devised a scheme to get his conviction overturned, by bribing an acquaintance, Julie Linn-West, to give perjured testimony substantiating Moody’s claim that the fictional “Gene Wallace” had placed the pipe bomb in Moody’s home in Macon in 1972. Moody provided Linn-West — a young, destitute, wheelchair-bound woman — with a detailed scripted story shifting the blame to Gene Wallace. Moody paid Linn-West in small monthly installments as she learned Moody’s written script, according to which Linn-West was to claim that she had been with Gene Wallace in Macon in 1972 and had seen him place the bomb in Moody’s home. According to the script, Linn-West was also to maintain that she feared Gene Wallace would harm her if she had implicated him, but that, after experiencing pangs of conscience, she had finally come forward to help Moody clear his name.FN5

FN5. Both Moody and his girlfriend, Susan McBride Samford, coached Linn-West on the story.

In September 1986, when he was satisfied that Linn-West had learned his scripted story, Moody filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis in the federal district court in Macon, asking the court to vacate his 1972 conviction based on “newly discovered evidence,” i.e., the fabricated story placing the blame for the bombing on Gene Wallace. Linn-West’s mother, Jo Ann Ekstrom, subsequently became involved in Moody’s scheme, and she, too, agreed to give false testimony on his behalf. Following a hearing, in March 1988, at which Linn-West and Ekstrom perjured themselves by reciting Moody’s scripted story, the district court deniéd Moody’s petition. Moody appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed the denial in June 1989.FN6 This final rejection precipitated Moody’s war on the courts. It was the State’s theory at trial that Moody became disillusioned with lawyers, judges, and other representatives of the legal system as a result of his contacts with that system and that his inability to convince the courts that he had been wronged by the system led to the series of bombings that resulted in the death of Judge Vance.

FN5. In July 1990, Moody was indicted on federal charges of suborning perjury and obstructing justice by procuring the false testimony of Linn-West and Ekstrom. He was convicted of those charges in December 1990, after a trial in Brunswick, Georgia.

The evidence revealed that in the summer of 1989, Moody enlisted the help of his girlfriend, who later became his wife, Susan McBride Samford, to procure items necessary for him to construct explosive devices to use against the court and others. Moody initially dispatched Samford on trips around the Southeast to gather the components for a “chemical project” he was allegedly working on. In July 1989, however, Moody abandoned this chemical project. He then started the project that ultimately produced the tear-gas bomb that exploded at the NAACP regional office in Atlanta in August 1989. After the tear-gas bombing, Moody pursued another project, again using Samford to procure the necessary components for him, sending her on numerous surreptitious missions to hardware and supply stores, where Samford made purchases or shoplifted items, as instructed by Moody. During this time, Moody sealed off the front bedroom of the Rex, Georgia, residence he shared with Samford and gave her lists of items to procure. With these items, Moody then constructed four pipe bombs, including the pipe bombs that killed Robert Robinson and Judge Vance.

At Moody’s trial, Samford testified at length about her activities in gathering the components Moody used to make the pipe bombs and the packages in which they were sent.FN7 Among the items Samford stated she procured for Moody were mailing labels of the same type used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; stamps like those on the packages containing the December 1989 pipe bombs; cardboard boxes like those used to hold the December 1989 pipe bombs; aluminum pie pans made of material similar to the material found in the December 1989 pipe bombs; goose-pattern paper towels like those used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; C-cell batteries like those used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; flashlight bulbs like those used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; black latex paint like that used to paint the boxes that held the December 1989 pipe bombs; nails like those used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; string like that used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; brown wrapping paper like that used in packaging the December 1989 pipe bombs; aluminum clothesline wire like the heavy-gauge aluminum wire used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; rubber bands like those used in the December 1989 pipe bombs; and tape like that used in packaging the December 1989 pipe bombs.

FN7. Pursuant to an immunity agreement with federal prosecutors, Sam-ford pleaded guilty in 1990 to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with her participation in Moody’s scheme to procure the false testimony of Julie Linn-West and Jo Ann Ekstrom in the coram nobis proceeding. In exchange for her cooperation with state and federal law-enforcement officials and for her willingness to testify truthfully in court, Samford was not prosecuted on state or federal charges related to her participation in the pipe-bomb killings of Judge Vance and Robert Robinson. The jury was informed of the existence of Samford’s deal with prosecutors. See Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972).

Samford’s testimony indicated that, after Moody finished his construction of the pipe bombs.in early December 1989, he opened the bedroom in which he had been working and then thoroughly cleaned and remodeled the bedroom in order to erase evidence of his bomb making. He then mailed the bombs. According, to Samford, after the FBI began investigating Moody’s involvement in the December 1989 bombings, Moody remarked to her, “[I]f they have any evidence, it would be DNA.” (Vol. 68, R. 1191.) On another occasion, in late December 1989, after seeing a television news report that a judge in Maryland had been injured by a pipe bomb, Moody told Samford something to. the effect of “That one is not mine” or “I didn’t do that one.” (Vol. 68, R. 1188.)

In addition to the incriminating testimony against Moody presented by Sam-ford, there was eyewitness testimony indicating that on December 2, 1989, at a gun shop in Griffin, Georgia, Moody purchased four pounds of Hercules Red Dot brand smokeless gunpowder and an unusually large number of CCI brand pistol primers — the kind of gunpowder and primer material that, according to forensic analysis, was used in the December 1989 pipe bombs. The State’s experts testified that there were numerous similarities between the pipe bomb that exploded in Moody’s home in 1972 and the four December 1989 pipe bombs and that the bombs contained the “signature” of the same maker — indicating that they had all been made by the same person. The evidence also showed that the 1972 pipe bomb — like three of the four December 1989 pipe bombs and like the August 1989 tear-gas bomb — had been accompanied by a threatening note. FN8

FN8. Evidence showed that the death-threat note accompanying the pipe bomb that had been sent to the Jacksonville office of the NAACP in December 1989 was addressed “To the officer who opened our smoke bomb.”

The State also presented evidence showing that in February 1990, federal investigators recovered a steel pipe with threaded end caps during a search of a storage area that Moody was renting in Chamblee, Georgia. This device was similar in some respects to the 1972 pipe bomb and the December 1989 pipe bombs, and a forensic explosives expert testified that the device appeared to represent a transitional phase between the 1972 pipe bomb and the December 1989 pipe bombs.

Karlene Shiver, a woman who had dated Moody in the early 1980s, testified that Moody owned a manual typewriter on which the letter “A” would “jump.” The State presented evidence demonstrating that each “A” appearing in a word on a typed death-threat letter from “Americans for a Competent Federal Judicial System” that was sent to Brenda Wood at the WAGA television station in Atlanta shortly after the pipe-bomb killings jumped above the other letters in the word. Shiver also testified that Moody had once told her that a bombing was a “perfect crime” because when everything exploded, there was nothing left to investigate. (Vol. 72, R. 405.)

During their investigation of the bombings, federal agents electronically monitored Moody’s residence and the jail cell in which he was held after his arrest. The surveillance yielded several audiotapes on which Moody was heard whispering incriminating statements to himself. In one such “conversation,” Moody stated, “NoA you’ve killed two.... Now you can’t pull another bombin’....” In another statement that he whispered to himself, Moody complained that the courts were crooks and that he had been the victim of a “judicial raping.” Moody then stated, “I’ll guarantee you, it will never happen again. Now you, you don’t believe me? You’re in for a rude awakening!”

In November 1990, Moody was charged with numerous federal crimes related to the bombings. The venue for the trial on those charges was changed to St. Paul, Minnesota. After a trial in June 1991, a jury found Moody guilty on 71 separate counts. Moody was sentenced to 7 life terms plus 400 years in the federal penitentiary.

Moody v. State, 888 So.2d 532, 540-45 (Ala.Crim.App.2003).

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In December 1991, a Jefferson County, Alabama, grand jury indicted Moody on two counts of capital murder arising out of the death of Judge Vance and one count of assault in the first degree arising out of the injuries sustained by Helen Vance. The murder was made capital because it was committed by means of explosives or explosion, see Ala.Code § 13A-5-40(a)(9) (1975), and because Judge Vance was a federal public official and the murder was related to his official position, see Ala.Code § 13A-6-40(a)(ll) (1975). All of the judges of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, which is composed of Jefferson County, recused themselves from hearing Moody’s case. On April 8, 1992, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court assigned Judge William H. Rhea III of the Etowah Circuit Court to preside over Moody’s case. The trial was delayed several times, and Moody ultimately elected to waive his right to counsel and proceed pro se at his trial, as explained in more detail herein.

On November 5, 1996, Moody was convicted by a jury in the Jefferson County Circuit Court of all charges. After Moody’s trial, the jury separately returned a verdict recommending death by a vote of eleven to one. On February 10, 1997, the trial court accepted the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Moody to death for the capital murder convictions. The trial court also sentenced Moody, a habitual felony offender, to life imprisonment for the first-degree-assault conviction.

Moody, through counsel, appealed. On April 18, 2003, the ACCA affirmed Moody’s convictions and sentences. Moody, 888 So.2d 532. On March 26, 2004, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Moody’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Moody sought review from the United States Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court denied certiorari on November 1, 2004.

On March 23, 2005, Moody, through counsel, filed a state post-conviction petition pursuant to Rule 32 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure (“Rule 32”) in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama. The petition was amended on March 2, 2006, and again on July 20, 2009. The circuit court issued a summary dismissal on December 28, 2009. On December 16, 2011, the ACCA affirmed the circuit court’s denial of post-conviction relief. Moody v. State, 95 So.3d 827 (Ala.Crim. App.2011). Moody filed an application for a rehearing, but it was denied by the ACCA on January 27, 2012. On May 18, 2012, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Moody’s petition for a writ of certiorari.

Moody filed the instant petition on December 20, 2012, and it is his first and only federal application for habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. After this Court entered an initial order governing the requirements and deadlines for the filing of an amended petition, an answer, and accompanying briefs and certifications, Moody sought recusal of the undersigned judge and a change of venue in three separate filings. (Docs. 10, 19, and 30.) Each motion was denied by this Court. (Docs. 11, 20, and 31.) Moody then petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for a writ of mandamus ordering the undersigned judge to recuse and directing the transfer of this action to a district judge outside of the bounds of the Eleventh Circuit. In the mandamus proceeding, Moody then separately moved for all of the judges of the Eleventh Circuit to recuse themselves from the proceeding and transfer the action to another circuit court of appeals. On March 21, 2014, the Eleventh Circuit denied Moody’s motion for recusal of all of the judges of the Eleventh Circuit and denied his petition for a writ of mandamus. In re Moody, 755 F.3d 891 (11th Cir.2014). On November 3, 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States denied Moody’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Accordingly, the habeas petition is now ripe for review.

III. STANDARDS OF FEDERAL HA-BEAS REVIEW

This action is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 2254, as amended by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”). See Guzman v. Sec’y, Dep’t of Corr., 663 F.3d 1336, 1345 (11th Cir.2011). Pursuant to § 2254(a), a federal district court is prohibited from entertaining a petition for writ of habeas corpus “in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court” unless the petition alleges “he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a). In other words, this Court’s review of habeas claims is limited to federal constitutional questions. Claims pertaining solely to “an alleged defect in a [state] collateral proceeding” or to a “state’s interpretation of its own laws or rules” do not provide a basis for federal habeas corpus relief under § 2254. Alston v. Dep’t of Corr., Fla., 610 F.3d 1318, 1325-26 (11th Cir.2010) (quotation marks and citations omitted).

A. Exhaustion of State Remedies and Procedural Default

Under § 2254(b) and (c), a federal court must limit its grant of habeas applications to cases where an applicant has exhausted all state remedies. Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, — —, 131 S.Ct. 1388, 1398, 179 L.Ed.2d 557 (2011). The purpose of this requirement is to ensure that state courts are afforded the first opportunity to correct federal questions affecting the validity of state court convictions. See Snowden v. Singletary, 135 F.3d 732, 735 (11th Cir.1998); see also Smith v. Newsome, 876 F.2d 1461, 1463 (11th Cir.1989) (“Federal courts are not forums in which to relitigate state trials.”) (citation omitted). Moreover, “to exhaust state remedies fully the petitioner must make the state court aware that the claims asserted present federal constitutional issues. ‘It is not enough that all the facts necessary to support the federal claim were before the state courts or that a somewhat similar state-law claim was made.’ ” Snowden, 135 F.3d at 735 (quoting Anderson v. Harless, 459 U.S. 4, 5-6, 103 S.Ct. 276, 277, 74 L.Ed.2d 3 (1982)).

“[A]n issue is exhausted if ‘the reasonable reader would understand the claim’s particular legal basis and specific factual foundation’ to be the same as it was presented in state court.” Pope v. Sec’y for Dep’t of Corr., 680 F.3d 1271, 1286 (11th Cir.2012) (quoting Kelley v. Sec’y for Dep’t of Corr., 377 F.3d 1317, 1344-45 (11th Cir.2004)) (brackets in original omitted). If a petitioner fails to raise his federal claim to the state court at the time and in the manner dictated by the state’s procedural rules, the state court can decide the claim is not entitled to a review on the merits, i.e., “the petitioner will have procedurally defaulted on that claim.” Mason v. Allen, 605 F.3d 1114, 1119 (11th Cir.2010). Moreover, a “state court’s rejection of a petitioner’s constitutional claim on state procedural grounds will generally preclude any subsequent federal habeas review of that claim.” Ward v. Hall, 592 F.3d 1144, 1156 (11th Cir.2010) (quoting Judd v. Haley, 250 F.3d 1308, 1313 (11th Cir.2001)). “Where there has been one reasoned state judgment rejecting a federal claim, later unexplained orders upholding that judgment or rejecting the same claim rest upon the same ground.” Ylst v. Nunnemaker, 501 U.S. 797, 803, 111 S.Ct. 2590, 2594, 115 L.Ed.2d 706 (1991).

Yet as the Eleventh Circuit has noted, a claim will only be procedurally defaulted in the following circumstance:

[A] state court’s rejection of a federal constitutional claim on procedural grounds may only preclude federal review if the state procedural ruling rests upon “adequate and independent” state grounds. Marek v. Singletary, 62 F.3d 1295, 1301 (11th Cir.1995) (citation omitted).

We have “established a three-part test to enable us to determine when a state court’s procedural ruling constitutes an independent and adequate state rule of decision.” Judd, 250 F.3d at 1313. “First, the last state court rendering a judgment in the case must clearly and expressly state that it is relying on state procedural rules to resolve the federal claim without reaching the merits of that claim.” Id. Second, the state court’s decision must rest entirely on state law grounds and not be intertwined with an interpretation of federal law. See id. Third, the state procedural rule must be adequate, i.e., firmly established and regularly followed and not applied “in an arbitrary or unprecedented fashion.’.’ Id.

Ward, 592 F.3d at 1156-57 (footnote omitted).

There are also instances where the doctrines of procedural default and exhaustion intertwine. For instance, if a petitioner’s federal claim is unexhausted, a district court will traditionally dismiss it without prejudice or stay the cause of action to allow the petitioner to first avail himself of his state remedies. See Rose v. Dandy, 455 U.S. 509, 519-20, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 1204, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982). But “if it is clear from state law that any future attempts at exhaustion [in state court] would be futile” under the state’s own procedural rules, a court can simply find that the claim is “procedurally defaulted, even absent a state court determination to that effect.” Bailey v. Nagle, 172 F.3d 1299, 1305 (11th Cir.1999) (citation omitted).

B. Overcoming Procedural Default

“[A]n adequate and independent finding of procedural default will bar federal habeas review of the federal claim, unless the habeas petitioner can show cause for the default and prejudice attributable thereto, or demonstrate that failure to consider the federal claim will result in a fundamental miscarriage of justice.” Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 749-50, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 2564-65, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

The “cause and prejudice” exception is framed in the conjunctive, and a petitioner must prove both cause and prejudice. Id. at 750, 111 S.Ct. at 2565. To show cause, a petitionér must prove that “some objective factor external to the defense impeded counsel’s efforts” to raise the claim previously. Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 2645, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986). Examples of such objective factors include:

... interference by officials that makes compliance with the State’s procedural rule impracticable, and a showing that the factual or legal basis for a claim was not reasonably available to counsel. In addition, constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel ... is cause. Attorney error short of ineffective assistance of counsel, however, does not constitute cause and will not excuse a procedural default.

McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U.S. 467, 494, 111 S.Ct. 1454, 1470, 113 L.Ed.2d 517 (1991) (internal quotation marks, brackets, and citations omitted). As for prejudice, a ha-beas petitioner must show “not merely that the errors ... created a possibility of prejudice, but that they worked to his actual and substantial disadvantage, infecting his entire trial with error of constitutional dimensions.” United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 170, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 1596, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982) (emphasis in original).

Finally, a petitioner may also escape a procedural default bar if he “can demonstrate a sufficient probability that [the court’s] failure to review his federal claim will result in a fundamental miscarriage of justice.” Edwards v. Carpenter, 529 U.S. 446, 451, 120 S.Ct. 1587, 1591, 146 L.Ed.2d 518 (2000). To make such a showing, a petitioner must establish that either: (1) “a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent,” Smith v. Murray, 477 U.S. 527, 537, 106 S.Ct. 2661, 2668, 91 L.Ed.2d 434 (1986) (quoting Carrier, 477 U.S. at 496, 106 S.Ct. at 2650), or (2) the petitioner shows “by clear and convincing evidence that but for a constitutional error, no reasonable juror would have found the petitioner eligible for the death penalty.” Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 323, 115 S.Ct. 851, 865, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995) (emphasis in original) (quoting Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U.S. 333, 336, 112 S.Ct. 2514, 2517, 120 L.Ed.2d 269 (1992)).

C. AEDPA Review of State Court Decisions Under § 2254(d) and (e)

When a constitutional claim upon which a petitioner seeks relief under § 2254 is not procedurally defaulted but has instead been adjudicated on the merits in state courts, this Court is still restricted in its ability to grant relief on those claims by § 2254(d). The AEDPA “imposes a highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings” and “demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt.” Guzman, 663 F.3d at 1345 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). To grant habeas relief on a claim, this Court must not only find that the constitutional claims are meritorious, but also that the state court’s resolution of those claims:

(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or

(2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.

28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(l)-(2); see also Boyd v. Allen, 592 F.3d 1274, 1292 (11th Cir. 2010) (quoting § 2254(d)). The burden of showing that an issue falls within § 2254(d)(1) or (d)(2) is upon the petitioner. See Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U.S. 19, 25, 123 S.Ct. 357, 360, 154 L.Ed.2d 279 (2002). Section 2254(d)(l)’s “contrary to” and “unreasonable application of’ clauses have independent meanings. See Alderman v. Terry, 468 F.3d 775, 791 (11th Cir.2006) (“[T]he ‘contrary to’ and ‘unreasonable application’ clauses are interpreted as independent statutory modes of analysis.”) (citation omitted). A state court’s decision is contrary to “clearly established precedents [of the Supreme Court of the United States] if it applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in [the Court’s] cases, or if it confronts a set of facts that is materially indistinguishable from a decision of th[e] Court but reaches a different result.” Brown v. Payton, 544 U.S. 133, 141, 125 S.Ct. 1432, 1438, 161 L.Ed.2d 334 (2005) (citation omitted). On the other hand, to determine whether a state court’s decision is an “unreasonable application” of clearly established federal law, the Supreme Court has stated:

The pivotal question is whether the state court’s application of the [relevant constitutional] standard was unreasonable ... For purposes of § 2254(d)(1), an unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect application of federal law. A state court must be granted a deference and latitude that are not in operation when the case involves review under the [relevant constitutional] standard itself.

A state court’s determination that a claim lacks merits precludes federal ha-beas relief so long as fairminded jurists could disagree on the correctness of the state court’s decision. And as the [Supreme Court] has explained, evaluating whether a rule application was unreasonable requires considering the rule’s specificity. The more general the rule, the more leeway courts have in reaching outcomes in case-by-case determinations.

Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 131 S.Ct. 770, 785-86, 178 L.Ed.2d 624 (2011) (citation and quotation marks omitted) (emphasis in original); see also Schriro v. Landrigan, 550 U.S. 465, 473, 127 S.Ct. 1933, 1939, 167 L.Ed.2d 836 (2007) (“The question under AEDPA is not whether a federal court believes the state court’s determination was incorrect but whether that determination was unreasonable — a substantially higher threshold.”); Guzman, 663 F.3d at 1346 (“Ultimately, before a federal court may grant habeas relief under § 2254(d), ‘a state prisoner must show that the state court’s ruling on the claim being presented in federal court was so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement.’ ”) (quoting Harrington, 131 S.Ct. at 786-87).

Moreover, a state court’s factual determination is entitled to a presumption of correctness under § 2254(e)(1). And commensurate with the deference accorded to a state court’s factual findings, “the petitioner must rebut ‘the presumption of correctness [of a state court’s factual findings] by clear and convincing evidence.’ ” Ward, 592 F.3d at 1155-56 (alterations in original) (quoting § 2254(e)(1)).

D. The Burden of Proof and Heightened Pleading Requirements for Habeas Petitions

Additionally, because habeas corpus review is limited to review of errors of constitutional dimension, a habeas corpus petition “must meet [the] heightened pleading requirements [of] 28 U.S.C. § 2254 Rule 2(c).” McFarland v. Scott, 512 U.S. 849, 856, 114 S.Ct. 2568, 2572, 129 L.Ed.2d 666 (1994) (citation omitted). “[T]he petition must ‘specify all the grounds for relief available to the petitioner’ and ‘state the facts supporting each ground.’ ” Mayle v. Felix, 545 U.S. 644, 655, 125 S.Ct. 2562, 2570, 162 L.Ed.2d 582 (2005) (quoting Rule 2(c) of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the U.S. District Courts). The burden of proof is on the habeas petitioner “to establish his right to habeas relief and he must prove all facts necessary to show a constitutional violation.” Blankenship v. Hall, 542 F.3d 1253, 1270 (11th Cir.2008) (citation omitted); see also Smith v. Wainwright, 777 F.2d 609, 616 (11th Cir.1985) (holding that a general allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel is insufficient; a petition must allege specific errors in counsel’s performance and facts showing prejudice).

E. The General Standard for Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims

In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the Supreme Court established the following two-pronged standard for judging, under the Sixth Amendment, the effectiveness of attorneys who represent criminal defendants at trial or on direct appeal:

A convicted defendant’s claim that counsel’s assistance was so defective as to require reversal of a conviction or death sentence has two components. First, the defendant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable. Unless a defendant makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction or death sentence resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable.

Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.

Because Strickland’s preceding two-part test is clearly framed in the conjunctive, a petitioner bears the burden of proving both “deficient performance” and “prejudice” by “a preponderance of competent evidence.” Chandler v. United States, 218 F.3d 1305, 1313 (11th Cir.2000) (en banc); see also Holladay v. Haley, 209 F.3d 1243, 1248 (11th Cir.2000) (“Because both parts of the test must be satisfied in order to show a violation of the Sixth Amendment, the court need not address the performance prong if the defendant cannot meet the prejudice prong, [ ] or vice versa.”). Further, when assessing ineffective assistance of counsel claims:

[I]t is important to keep in mind that in addition to the deference to counsel’s performance mandated by Strickland, the AEDPA adds another layer of deference — this one to a State court’s decision — when we are considering whether to grant federal habeas relief from a State court’s decision. Thus, [a petitioner] not only has to satisfy the elements of the Strickland standard, but he must also show that the State court applied Strickland to the facts of his case in an objectively unreasonable manner.

Williams v. Allen, 598 F.3d 778, 789 (11th Cir.2010) (brackets in original omitted) (citations and quotation marks omitted) (emphasis in original).

In order to establish deficient performance, a habeas petitioner “must show that counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. at 2064. That reasonableness is judged against “prevailing professional norms.” Id., 104 S.Ct. at 2065. Moreover, under Strickland, lower federal courts must be “highly deferential” in their scrutiny of counsel’s performance. Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065. As the Strickland court outlined:

Judicial scrutiny of counsel’s performance must be highly deferential. It is all too tempting for a defendant to second-guess counsel’s assistance after conviction or adverse sentence, and it is all too easy for a court, examining counsel’s defense after it has proved unsuccessful, to conclude that a particular act or omission of counsel was unreasonable. A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel’s challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective at the time. Because of the difficulties inherent in making the evaluation, a court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action might be considered sound trial strategy. There are countless ways to provide effective assistance in any given case. Even the best criminal defense attorneys would not defend a particular client in the same way.

Id., 104 S.Ct. at 2065 (citations and quotation marks omitted).

Simply put, a habeas petitioner “must establish that no competent counsel would have taken the action that his counsel did take” to overcome the presumption that counsel’s conduct fell within the wide range of 'reasonable professional assistance. Chandler, 218 F.3d at 1315. The reasonableness of counsel’s performance is judged from the perspective of the attorney, at the time of the alleged error, and in light of all the circumstances. See, e.g., Newland v. Hall, 527 F.3d 1162, 1184 (11th Cir.2008) (“We review counsel’s performance ‘from counsel’s perspective at the time,’ to avoid ‘the distorting effects of hindsight.’ ”) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065).

To satisfy the prejudice prong, a habeas petition “must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. Stated differently, “[a] finding of prejudice requires proof of unprofessional errors so egregious that the trial was rendered unfair and-the verdict rendered suspect.” Johnson v. Alabama, 256 F.3d 1156, 1177 (11th Cir.2001) (citations and quotation marks omitted). Further, the fact that counsel’s “errors had some conceivable effect on the outcome of the proceeding” is insufficient to show prejudice. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 693, 104 S.Ct. at 2067. Therefore, “when a petitioner challenges a death sentence, ‘the question is whether there is a reasonable probability that, absent the errors, the' sentencer ... would have concluded that the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances did not warrant death.’” Stewart v. Sec’y, Dep’t of Corr., 476 F.3d 1193, 1209 (11th Cir.2007) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 695, 104 S.Ct. at 2069).

Because Strickland and § 2254(d) both mandate standards that are “ ‘highly deferential’ ”, “when the two apply in tandem, review is ‘doubly’ so.” Harrington, 131 S.Ct. at 788 (citations omitted). The inquiry is not then “whether counsel’s actions were reasonable,” but is instead “whether there is any reasonable argument that counsel satisfied Strickland’s deferential standard.” Id. The court must determine “whether the state court’s application of the Strickland standard was unreasonable. This is different from asking whether defense counsel’s performance fell below Strickland’s standard.” Id. at 785. This “[djouble deference is doubly difficult for a petitioner to overcome, and it will be a rare case in which an ineffective assistance of counsel claim that was denied on the merits in state court is found to merit relief in a federal habeas proceeding.” Evans v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 699 F.3d 1249, 1268 (11th Cir.2012).

Finally, “[s]tate court findings of historical facts' made in the course of evaluating an ineffectiveness claim are subject to a presumption of correctness under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).” Thompson v. Haley, 255 F.3d 1292, 1297 (11th Cir.2001).

With these principles in mind, the Court now turns to Moody’s specific claims.

IV. MOODY’S SUBSTANTIVE CLAIMS

A. Moody’s claim that the trial court deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel

Moody presents six interrelated sub-arguments within this ground for ha-beas relief. Before turning to those, a discussion is warranted of the circumstances surrounding Moody’s decision to waive the assistance of counsel and proceed pro se at his trial. The ACCA, in its opinion on direct appeal, laid out the background facts in great detail, as follows:

We begin ... by recounting the events that culminated in Moody’s proceeding through his trial without the aid of a lawyer. As previously stated, a Jefferson County grand jury indicted Moody in December 1991. In February 1992, upon finding that Moody was indigent, the trial court appointed attorney L. Dan Turberville to represent him. The following month, the trial court appointed attorney Richard S. Jaffe to assist Turberville. Both Turberville and Jaffe are seasoned criminal defense attorneys with abundant prior experience representing defendants in capital-murder cases.

For more than two years after they were appointed, during which time Moody’s case was continued several times, Turberville and Jaffe actively represented Moody, filing numerous motions, appearing at numerous hearings, conducting discovery, and engaging in extensive pretrial preparation on Moody’s behalf. Moody, however, was dissatisfied with his attorneys, and he began sending letters to the trial court complaining about their performance and seeking to have them removed as his counsel.FN10 He also filed a motion for an “independent counsel”, who would report on the adequacy of the representation he was receiving from Turberville and Jaffe. Moody would eventually sue the attorneys in federal court, alleging that they were providing him ineffective assistance.

FN10. Among Moody’s complaints was a claim that his attorneys had not spent enough time preparing his case.

Quite aware of Moody’s dissatisfaction, Turberville and Jaffe, on June 7, 1994, moved to be allowed to withdraw from further representation of Moody based on “irreconcilable differences.” In moving to withdraw as counsel, Tur-berville and Jaffe informed the trial court that their relationship with Moody had broken down entirely, that Moody “refuses to communicate with counsel unless counsel does exactly what the client says,” that Moody “has claimed that both of his counsel are ineffective and inadequate,” and that Moody had made numerous threats against them. On June 22, 1994, the trial court set a hearing on the matter for July 26, 1994. The hearing was later reset for August 2,1994. On July 25,1994, Moody filed a motion' with the trial court requesting that he be allowed to proceed pro se.

On August 2,1994, the trial court held a hearing on Turberville and Jaffe’s motions to withdraw as counsel as well as on Moody’s motion to proceed pro se. At the hearing, an investigator for the Alabama attorney general’s office testified concerning Moody’s extensive litigation history and his often fractious relationships with the attorneys who had represented him in the many legal proceedings in which he had been involved. That testimony indicated that since 1972, Moody had been a party, whether at the trial level or appellate level, in a total of 63 legal proceedings — both civil and criminal. At some point in 47 of those proceedings, Moody either retained counsel or had counsel appointed to represent him, and in almost all 47 instances, he had discharged his attorneys, claiming that their representation was ineffective. As he had done with Turberville and Jaffe, Moody had also sued his attorneys in two of those cases. None of Moody’s attorneys in the prior proceedings, however, had ever been found to be ineffective. In approximately 35 of the prior legal proceedings, Moody had proceeded pro se for either all or part of a proceeding. ,

After determining that Moody had no objection, the trial court permitted Tur-berville and Jaffe to withdraw from further representation of Moody. Addressing Moody’s motion to proceed pro se, the trial court then undertook a lengthy colloquy with Moody. It warned him that he would be at a significant disadvantage without counsel; that, as a non-lawyer, he would be “ill-equipped” to make arguments to the jury; and that the court considered his desire to represent himself to be “a foolhardy endeav- or.” The court urged Moody to accept counsel. The trial court fully advised Moody of the nature of the charges against him and the penalties that could be imposed if he were convicted. In addition, the trial court conducted an inquiry into Moody’s background and legal experience and ascertained whether Moody was familiar with the order of a trial and the evidentiary rules. The trial court informed Moody that, if he proceeded pro se, he would be entitled to the assistance of standby counsel, but that that assistance would be limited to an advisory capacity and that standby counsel would not provide the thoroughgoing legal assistance full counsel could give. The trial court also informed Moody that he had the right to withdraw his waiver of counsel at any time in the proceedings and to have experienced counsel appointed to represent him. However, the trial court expressly warned Moody that if he proceeded pro se but later changed his mind and accepted counsel, neither Moody nor his counsel would be entitled to delay the trial of his case. The trial court informed Moody that no continuance of the scheduled January 30, 1995, trial date would be granted because of his decision to proceed pro se.

During the hearing, Moody initially indicated that, while he wished to proceed pro se, he wanted the court to appoint a “cocounsel,” who, according to Moody, would act as his “liaison” to the court, to the State, to any expert witnesses, and to “everybody else that is going to support the defense.” (Vol. 56, hearing of August 2,1994, R. 15.) When the trial court then advised Moody that it did not intend to allow Moody to participate as cocounsel or to proceed with a hybrid form of representation, Moody responded that the matter was “largely semantics” and that he did not care whether the attorney who assisted him was called cocounsel or assistant co