Full opinion text
TJOFLAT, Chief Judge: John Mills, Jr. is a Florida prison inmate. In 1982, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, kidnapping, burglary of a dwelling while armed, and grand theft. The trial court, following the jury’s recommendation, sentenced Mills to death on the murder conviction; the court sentenced him to terms of imprisonment for the other crimes. After his conviction became final and he failed to obtain post-conviction relief in the state courts, Mills brought the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida seeking the vacation of his convictions and his death sentence. In his petition, Mills presented twenty federal constitutional challenges to his convictions and sentence; the district court rejected nineteen of the claims as legally insufficient and, following an evidentiary hearing, denied relief on the remaining claim. Mills appeals the district court’s disposition of several of his claims. We hold that the district court properly declined to issue the writ. Accordingly, we affirm. I. A. On the morning of March 5, 1982, Mills picked up Michael Fredrick at Fredrick’s residence in Wakulla County, Florida. Mills was driving an orange 1982 Dodge pickup truck that belonged to his mother. Mills and Fredrick went to Mills’ mother’s house for a short while; after they stepped outside the house to leave, Mills went back inside and retrieved a single-barrel, single-shot, 12-gauge shotgun that Fredrick had given Mills earlier in the week and placed it behind the seat of the truck. Following a brief stop, the two set out to burglarize a house. Mills and Fredrick then drove around Panacea, Florida in search of a target. After stopping at a trailer that appeared to be unoccupied but discovering that an elderly woman was at home, Mills and Fredrick left Panacea and drove into the Lake Ellen area. At some point, Mills became disoriented in some heavy rain and turned the truck around in front of a house; Fredrick later identified the house for the authorities. Sometime after turning around, Mills and Fredrick arrived at the trailer home of Les and Shirley Lawhon; because Shirley had gone to work in Tallahassee earlier that day in the La-whons’ only car, the trailer appeared unoccupied. Mills parked the truck, went to the door, and knocked. Les Lawhon answered the door and let Mills in; shortly thereafter Mills reappeared at the door and motioned Fredrick inside. When Fredrick entered the trailer, Mills was using the Lawhons’ kitchen phone while Lawhon was rummaging through what appeared to Fredrick to be a phone book or a newspaper. Soon after Fredrick entered, Mills dropped the phone, grabbed a kitchen knife, and held it to Lawhon’s throat. La-whon said, “Please don’t hurt me. Y’all take what you all want.” Mills replied, “Shut up, cracker.” Mills instructed Fredrick to cheek out the rest of the trailer; Fredrick looked into the trailer’s bedrooms; no one was there. Mills then told Fredrick to check outside. Lawhon, apparently realizing that he would be forced to leave with his assailants, asked if he could put on his shoes. Mills told him he would not need his shoes where he was going. Fredrick left the trailer to cheek outside; Mills and Lawhon soon exited the trailer as well. Mills had taken a double-barrel, 12-gauge shotgun from the trailer and walked behind Lawhon with the shotgun to La-whon’s head. Mills threw the truck keys to Fredrick and asked him to drive. Lawhon sat in the passenger’s seat; Mills sat in the small space in the cab directly behind him, kept the shotgun trained on him, and gave Fredrick directions. Lawhon was trembling. Near the end of the drive, Lawhon asked what Fredrick and Mills were going to do to him. Mills told him, “I’m going to do to you what your forefathers did to my forefathers.” After driving approximately seven miles, Mills, Fredrick, and Lawhon arrived at an abandoned airstrip. Mills forced Lawhon out of the truck, ordered him to his knees, and tied his hands behind his back with a belt. Then, while Lawhon was on his knees, Mills struck him on the back of his head with a tire iron. Lawhon fell forward, bleeding from the back of his head. Mills watched Lawhon for a few moments and then turned to leave, saying, “Let’s go.” When Mills spoke, La-whon sprang up and ran. Mills, shotgun in hand, chased him. Mills caught up with La-whon in a nearby canal and grabbed his arm; Lawhon butted Mills in the stomach with his head and fled up the far bank of the canal, disappearing into thick underbrush. Mills, still pursuing Lawhon, vanished into the underbrush as well. Shortly after Fredrick lost sight of both men, he heard two gunshots. Mills returned to the truck; Lawhon did not. Mills’ shirt was bloodied in the stomach area. He warned Fredrick not to say “anything about this” and suggested that they “go back to the house and clean it out and get everything we can sell.” Fredrick and Mills got back into the truck; Mills drove. At some point, Mills took off the bloody shirt and threw it on the passenger-side floorboard. Shortly thereafter, Mills stopped the truck and discarded the shirt in the bushes beside the road. When Mills and Fredrick arrived at the Lawhons’ trailer, they removed virtually everything of value, including Shirley Lawhon’s jewelry and several guns. Mills exited the trailer last; he wiped the doorknob of the trailer as he left. Although Fredrick was not aware of it at the time, Mills had set the trailer on fire. Mills and Fredrick stopped at a nearby lake to better secure a cover concealing the stolen property. At that time, Fredrick took Shirley Lawhon’s high school class ring from her jewelry box. After dropping Fredrick off near his house, Mills brought the stolen property to his mother’s house, where he lived with his girlfriend, Fawndretta Galimore. He and Galimore put most of the property in a shed behind the house. Unbeknownst to Galimore, Mills put some of the property, including the firearms, in the house. Meanwhile, the Lawhons’ neighbors discovered that the Lawhon trailer was on fire and called the fire department. By the time the fire was extinguished, most of the trailer had burned. The authorities soon realized that Les Lawhon was missing and began an intensive search for him. On March 9, four days after Les Lawhon’s murder, Fredrick sold Shirley Lawhon’s high school ring to a Tallahassee pawn shop; he filled out a receipt identifying himself and left a thumb print in doing so. Shirley La-whon’s initials were inscribed on the inside of the ring and were noted in the ring’s description on the receipt. About a week after the Lawhon murder, Mills and Galimore were at the Wakulla County courthouse to settle Mills’ father’s estate. A Wakulla County deputy sheriff recognized Mills and arrested him on an outstanding parole violation warrant. The deputy allowed Mills to say goodbye to Gali-more before he was taken away. As Mills embraced Galimore, he quietly told her to get “rid of the property and stuff out of the shed and in the bedroom,” instructing her to look for the firearms under the bed. About five minutes later, while in the booking room of the county jail, Mills again whispered to Galimore to “[m]ake sure you get everything out of the shed and in the back room and under the bed.” Galimore did as Mills instructed, moving the property to her mother’s house in Tallahassee. The case remained unsolved, and Lawhon’s body undiscovered, for two months. On May 4, Gary Lassiter, an investigator in the Tallahassee Police Department, discovered that Fredrick, for whom an arrest warrant had issued on a burglary charge in an unrelated case, had pawned Shirley Lawhon’s ring. Lassiter promptly informed the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office, and, on May 6, Fredrick was arrested in Leon County. After he had been transported to Wakulla County, Lassiter and Sergeant Roxie Vause of the Wakulla County Sheriffs Office began questioning Fredrick about the burglary for which he had been arrested. They asked him whether he had obtained the ring in that burglary; they knew, of course, that it had been taken in the Lawhon burglary but said nothing about that case. Fredrick lied about where he had gotten the ring, and Lassiter and Vause did not press the issue. They did so the next day, though, when they began questioning Fredrick about Les Lawhon’s disappearance, but Fredrick offered another he about the ring’s origin. On May 8, prior to confessing his involvement in Les Lawhon’s murder, Fredrick led Ray Fredericks, an agent of the FDLE, and A1 Gandy, an investigator from the state prosecutor’s office, to the abandoned airstrip where Mills shot Lawhon. Fredrick told Ray Fredericks and Gandy that Mills had brought him to the airstrip and asked him to guard someone, but he had refused. An extensive search of the area soon led to the discovery of Lawhon’s remains. Despite the discovery of the victim’s body and his obvious involvement in the homicide, Fredrick continued to vacillate, offering varying accounts of what he had done — or not done — and how he had obtained Shirley La-whon’s ring. Finally, on the evening of May 8, Fredrick confessed to Ray Fredericks and Gandy his and Mills’ involvement in the Lawhon murder. Based on Fredrick’s implication of Mills, the Wakulla County Sheriff obtained Mills’ mother’s consent to search her house. The police found a shotgun and other property matching the description of the Lawhons’ property, executed a search warrant that day, and returned to the house and seized, among other things, a Stevens Model 311, double-barrel, 12-gauge shotgun. At trial, Fredrick identified that shotgun as the murder weapon, and Les Lawhon’s father identified it as belonging to the victim. The police also arrested Galimore when she arrived at the house during the search; she turned all of the stolen property in her possession over to the police. Gandy and Ray Fredericks questioned Mills on May 9 regarding his possible involvement in the Lawhon murder. Mills denied knowing Fredrick, denied ever owning or driving an orange Dodge pickup truck, denied any knowledge of the stolen property, and denied telling Galimore to move it. He was shaken when Gandy showed him a photograph of Lawhon and insisted that Gandy and others were “trying to hang something on” him. Mills continued to communicate with Gali-more through the mail following his arrest. In one letter, Mills told Galimore that “for all they know, you could have a receipt for the stuff,” which, as she understood it, referred to the property Mills had instructed her to discard. He also wrote that Galimore should not be afraid, that he had told her about “those Caucasians” time and again. Mills wrote that “[t]hey might just tell you, you could [go to prison for] 10 to 30 years to see your reaction” and that she should read the letter “with sense.” Galimore recounted these statements at trial; she also testified that Mills sometimes called white people “devils.” B. On May 19, 1982, a Wakulla County grand jury indicted Fredrick and Mills with one count each of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, kidnapping, burglary of a dwelling while armed, grand theft, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The firearm possession charges were severed. On October 4, Fredrick entered into a plea agreement with the State. Fredrick pled guilty to burglary, grand theft, and kidnapping; he pled no contest to second-degree murder and first-degree arson. The plea agreement required that Fredrick testify truthfully at Mills’ trial. Mills’ trial commenced on November 29, 1982. Fredrick testified in the State’s case in chief; Galimore did also. As we discuss in subpart IV(F) below, she appeared voluntarily; the State made no prosecutorial concession for her testimony. In addition to Fredrick and Galimore, the prosecution presented the testimony of several expert witnesses. They opined, collectively, that Lawhon was probably killed by a gunshot wound to the face; that small holes in palmetto leaves near Lawhon’s remains were consistent with number six shot, which is used (although not exclusively) in 12-gauge shotgun shells; that shot found on the ground near Lawhon’s remains were also consistent with number six shot; and that two shotgun waddings found near Lawhon’s remains were from a 12-gauge shotgun shell. These witnesses also said that no shoes had been discovered with or near the remains and that a shirt had been found where Fredrick said that Mills had disposed of his shirt as they drove back to the Lawhons’ trailer after the killing. Fredrick positively identified the shirt at trial, and tests indicated a blood stain on its lower front. In addition to the foregoing, Gandy recounted Mills’ false exculpatory statements, and a witness testified that she had seen an orange Dodge pickup truck with two or three black individuals inside turn around in her driveway on the afternoon of Lawhon’s murder. Fredrick had led the police to the witness’ house; he identified a photograph of the residence before the jury. The defense strategy was to paint Fredrick as an untruthful witness by highlighting his inconsistent stories to the police and by raising the possibility that Fredrick had kidnapped and murdered Lawhon alone or with the help of unknown accomplices. Mills testified in his own defense; his testimony emphasized that Fredrick had owed him money. Mills and Fredrick had met in jail in February 1982 — when they shared a cell for fifteen days — and Galimore had bailed Fredrick out of jail at Mills’ request by posting a $175 bond. Mills claimed that Fredrick had agreed to pay him $200 on the day he was released from jail if Mills would post the $175 bail. After Fredrick was released, Mills testified, Fredrick did not repay him. After several attempts to get Fredrick to pay him back, Mills told Fredrick that Fredrick owed him “dollar on a dollar” interest for each day that he was not repaid. Mills claims that, on the day in question, he was taking a break from painting the family cafe, which was next to his mother’s house, when Fredrick knocked on the door. Fredrick asked if he could borrow Mills’ truck to get the money he owed Mills. After running an errand and returning briefly to Mills’ mother’s house, Mills and Fredrick drove to a 40-acre plot of land about a mile from the house. Mills testified that he needed to cheek the height of some timber he had planted there; he had not checked the growth of the trees for a number of years. After he got out to survey the timber, Fredrick left with the truck, saying that he would return soon. Fredrick did not return for two or three hours. Mills explained that, after looking at the trees, which did not take long, he waited by the side of the road in heavy rain until Fredrick returned. The truck was loaded with property when Fredrick finally came back. Although Fredrick did not say where he had obtained the property, he told Mills to take it as payment of the interest and as a token of Ms gratitude to Mills for bailing him out of jail. Mills then took the truck and left Fredrick standing in the pouring rain— twelve miles from Fredrick’s house. According to Mills, someone whom Fredrick did not identify was to pick him up. Mills carried the property to his mother’s house, where he and Galimore unloaded it — placing it in the shed behind the house. Mills admitted that, following his arrest, he told Galimore to remove the property from the shed; he claimed that he was worried about theft, as the shed had been broken into once before. He also admitted telling Gali-more to take the property out of the house, citing the same concern. He testified that his reference to a receipt in his letter to Galimore was a reference to Galimore’s receipt for Fredrick’s $175 bail. He could not explain, however, why he did not say that in the letter. Finally, Mills said that he lied to Gandy because he had argued with him before in a previous case. At the conclusion of the guilt phase of the trial, the jury convicted Mills on all counts of the indictment. The trial then entered its sentencing phase. In the State’s case, the prosecutor called one witness: a probation and parole officer from the Florida Department of Corrections who testified that Mills was on parole at the time he killed Les Lawhon. Aside from the testimony of this witness, the State relied exclusively on the testimony and evidence presented during the guilt phase of the trial to support its case for a death penalty recommendation from the jury. Mills’ case consisted of the testimony of a psychiatrist, Dr. Na’im Akbar, who described Mills’ mental and psychological outlook and opined that Mills’ potential for rehabilitation was excellent. At the close of the evidence at the sentencing phase, the court, in charging the jury on its duty to recommend that either a sentence of death or of life imprisonment be imposed, instructed the jury that it should consider five statutory aggravating circumstances. The court instructed the jury to consider whether: (1) the crime was committed while the defendant was under a sentence of imprisonment; (2) the crime was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission, the attempted commission, or the flight after the commission or attempted commission, of the crime of kidnapping; (3) the crime was committed for pecuniary gain; (4) the crime was committed in a “cold, calculated or premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification” [hereinafter the “cold, calculated circumstance”]; and (5) the crime was “especially wicked, evil, atrocious, or cruel” [hereinafter the “atrociousness circumstance”]. See Fla. StatAnn. §§ 921.141(5)(a), (d), (f), (h), (i) (West 1985 & Supp.1995). The court also instructed the jury regarding both statutory and nonstatutory mitigating circumstances. The jury recommended by a vote of ten to two that Mills receive the death penalty. The court followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Mills accordingly. In its written judgment, the trial court found the five aggravating circumstances listed above but no statutory or nonstatutory mitigating circumstances. C. The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed Mills’ convictions and sentences on direct appeal. Mills v. State, 462 So.2d 1075 (Fla.) (per curiam) (“Mills I”), cert. denied, 473 U.S. 911, 105 S.Ct. 3538, 87 L.Ed.2d 661 (1985). The Governor of Florida thereafter signed a death warrant setting Mills’ execution for May 7,1987. Nine days before Mills’ scheduled execution, on April 28, Mills moved the trial court under Rule 3.850 of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure to vacate his convictions and sentences. See Fla. R.Crim.P. 3.850. In his Rule 3.850 petition, Mills raised seventeen claims, including ineffective assistance of counsel during the guilt phase of the trial, ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase, failure of the prosecution to reveal exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and improper comments by the prosecution in its closing argument to the jury at both the guilt and sentencing phases. The trial court, after holding a two-day evidentiary hearing on the Brady claim and the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase, denied relief. For reasons that are unclear, the trial court did not hold an evidentiary hearing on Mills’ claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the guilt phase, finding the claim “not ... cognizable under Rule 3.850.” State v. Mills, No. 65-82-CF-50A, slip op. at 6 (Fla.Cir.Ct. May 4, 1987). The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed. Mills v. State, 507 So.2d 602 (Fla.1987) (per curiam) (“Mills II”). While Mills’ Rule 3.850 appeal was pending, Mills filed his first petition for writ of habeas corpus and an application for stay of execution in the Supreme Court of Florida; the court denied both the habeas corpus petition and the application for stay. Id. On May 6, 1987, Mills filed the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, presenting twenty claims for relief. The district court granted a stay of execution, dismissed nineteen of Mills’ claims as legally insufficient, and held a two-day evidentiary hearing on Mills’ claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the guilt phase of the trial. After considering the evidence presented in support of that claim, the court rejected the claim as merit-less. The district court thereupon denied Mills the relief he requested. The court, however, issued a certificate of probable cause, and Mills now appeals. Mills has abandoned on appeal most of the claims he raised in the district court. In Part II below, we address Mills’ claim that pretrial publicity and events that occurred during trial rendered his trial fundamentally unfair. In Part III, we briefly address Mills’ claim that the prosecution’s pretrial solicitation of comments from various persons, including county and court officials, about the venirepersons who had been summoned for the ease denied him a fair trial. In Part IV, we consider Mills’ claims that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence. In Part V, we address Mills’ claims that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at both the guilt and sentencing phases of his trial. Finally, in Part VI, we consider whether we should address on the merits two procedurally barred claims — that the prosecution made improper comments in its closing argument during both the guilt and sentencing phases. II. Mills contends that both pervasive pretrial publicity and events that occurred during his trial rendered his trial fundamentally unfair. We address the merits of this claim after a brief review of its procedural history. A. Citing adverse pretrial publicity, Mills moved the trial court for a change of venue on four separate occasions. He filed his first motion seven weeks before his trial began. Following an evidentiary hearing concerning the extent of the publicity, the court denied Mills’ motion without prejudice to his right to renew it when the case came to trial. Mills renewed the motion immediately before the court and counsel began their voir dire of the venire that had been summoned for the trial; he presented a recent newspaper article about the case and repeated his earlier argument that it would be impossible to empanel a fair and impartial jury. The court remained unconvinced, however, and denied the motion. Mills’ third attempt to obtain a change of venue took place after he had exercised his last peremptory challenge and the court had refused his request for additional challenges. Again, the court denied the motion. Mills renewed his motion for the last time when the prosecution, having exhausted its peremptory challenges, accepted the twelve venirepersons seated in the jury box. The court, finding that a fair and impartial jury able to put aside the pretrial publicity could, and would, be empaneled, denied Mills’ motion. On direct appeal, Mills claimed error in the trial court’s refusal to grant a change of venue. The Supreme Court of Florida, concluding that the record supported the trial court’s finding regarding the jury’s impartiality, rejected Mills’ claim. Mills I, 462 So.2d at 1079. The district court rejected the claim as well, holding that Mills failed to show that he suffered any actual or presumed prejudice as a result of the pretrial publicity. B. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Sixth Amendment and thus guarantees the right of state criminal defendants to be tried “by a panel of impartial, ‘indifferent’ jurors ... [whose] verdict must be based upon the evidence developed at trial.” Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 722, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 1642, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961) (citations omitted). To prevail on his claim that he did not receive a fair trial, Mills must establish that the pretrial publicity and other events surrounding his trial resulted in either actual or presumed prejudice. Coleman v. Kemp, 778 F.2d 1487, 1489 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1164, 106 S.Ct. 2289, 90 L.Ed.2d 730 (1986); Coleman v. Zant, 708 F.2d 541, 544 (11th Cir.1983). We examine each standard in turn. 1. To demonstrate actual prejudice, Mills must prove that “one or more jurors entertained an opinion before the trial” that Mills was guilty and “that these jurors could not put this prejudice aside and render a verdict based solely on the evidence presented.” United States v. De La Vega, 913 F.2d 861, 864-65 (11th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 916, 111 S.Ct. 2011, 114 L.Ed.2d 99 (1991); United States v. Lehder-Rivas, 955 F.2d 1510, 1525 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 113 S.Ct. 347, 121 L.Ed.2d 262 (1992). Mills has not shown that even one juror, prior to hearing the evidence, had formed an opinion that he was guilty. Even if Mills had presented evidence indicating that a juror had formed such an opinion, he still would have had to show that the juror could not have rendered a verdict based on the evidence presented. Lehder-Rivas, 955 F.2d at 1525. Mills has not established actual prejudice in this case. 2. To determine whether Mills has established presumed prejudice, we examine whether: (1) the pretrial publicity was sufficiently prejudicial and inflammatory; and (2) the publicity saturated the community in which the trial was held. See Coleman, 708 F.2d at 544 (relying on Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 798-99, 95 S.Ct. 2031, 2035-36, 44 L.Ed.2d 589 (1975); Rideau v. Louisiana, 373 U.S. 723, 726-27, 83 S.Ct. 1417, 1419-20, 10 L.Ed.2d 663 (1963); and Mayola v. Alabama, 623 F.2d 992, 997 (5th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 913, 101 S.Ct. 1986, 68 L.Ed.2d 303 (1981)). This court has repeatedly noted that the principle of presumed prejudice “is rarely applicable and reserved for extreme situations.” Bundy v. Dugger, 850 F.2d 1402, 1424 (11th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1034, 109 S.Ct. 849, 102 L.Ed.2d 980 (1989); Woods v. Dugger, 923 F.2d 1454, 1459 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 953, 112 S.Ct. 407, 116 L.Ed.2d 355 (1991). a. At the hearing on his first motion for a change of venue, which was held in early October 1982, Mills presented testimony regarding articles that had been published in the Tallahassee Democrat and the Wakulla News. The circulation of the Tallahassee Democrat in Wakulla County was 1595 daily and 2230 on Sunday. The Wakulla News, a local weekly publication, had a total circulation of 3000: 2000 by subscription and 1000 from newsstands. The population of Wakulla County was approximately 11,000. The Tallahassee Democrat published a total of ten articles about the ease prior to the commencement of the venire voir dire on November 29, 1982. Each of the articles except the tenth was before the court when it considered Mills’ initial motion for a change of venue; all were before the court when it considered his subsequent motions. Five of these articles, appearing between March 7 and March 15, conveyed factual information about Les Lawhon’s disappearance, covered the ensuing search for him, and noted the Wakulla County sheriff’s opinion that the fire that consumed the Lawhons’ trailer appeared to have been set to conceal the theft of property. Only four Tallahassee Democrat articles, published on May 10, May 11, May 20, and November 28, respectively, mentioned Mills. The first three of these articles stated that Mills was a suspect, that Mills was in jail for violating the conditions of his parole, and that the alleged murder weapon had been found in the Mills residence. The November 28 article, which Mills introduced immediately prior to the commencement of the venire voir dire, stated that Fredrick was to testify against Mills, mentioned again that Mills was in jail for parole violation and that the suspected murder weapon had been found in the Mills residence. The Tallahassee Democrat did not publish any editorials about the case. Mills cited five Wakulla News articles in urging the court to move the trial’s venue. Two of the articles were published in March; one was published in May, one in August, and one in October. The first two articles focused on Les Lawhon’s disappearance and the ensuing search for him. The third, published on May 13, reported the discovery and identification of Lawhon’s remains, that Fredrick had assisted the police in finding the body, that Fredrick and Mills had been indicted for murder, and that Galimore had been charged as an accessory after the fact. The article also reported that Lawhon appeared to have been killed by a shotgun blast to the head and that a search of the Mills residence had resulted in the seizure of a double-barrel shotgun thought to have been stolen from the Lawhons’ trailer. Finally, the article said that Mills had been jailed for violating his parole. The fourth article, published August 19, reported that the trial date had been set, and the fifth article, published October 14, covered Fredrick’s change of plea. Like the Tallahassee Democrat, the Wakulla News published no editorials about the case. Finally, Mills presented the testimony of a resident of Wakulla County. The resident testified that he had heard the Lawhon murder discussed several times at work, that numerous people had expressed the opinion that Mills was guilty, and that every new newspaper article about the case had spurred conversation. He also stated that he was approached one night by two men who told him “get [your] gun and let’s go to the jailhouse and break in and get them out and do away with them.” Mills contends that the statements of the venirepersons on voir dire support his argument that we should presume prejudice in this case; we therefore examine those statements. The venire summoned for the case consisted of eighty Wakulla County residents. With the court and counsel in chambers, these prospective jurors were examined in groups of three regarding their exposure to pretrial publicity and their views about the death penalty. After each examination, the group returned to the courtroom, and the court entertained and ruled on any challenges for cause. Seventy-four of the eighty who had been summoned had heard of or read about the case. Of those seventy-four, fifty-five had seen or read at least one newspaper article about it. The court excused nine of the venire due to bias and excused one for a combination of bias and an unqualified preference for the death penalty. Of these ten, four had formed an opinion about the case based on discussion they had heard in the community; one had formed an opinion from reading newspaper articles and watching TV news; three had formed an opinion based on a combination of community talk, newspaper articles, and TV coverage; and two were biased for other reasons. The court denied four challenges for cause that Mills made during the in-chambers voir dire; only two of these challenges were based on bias due to pretrial publicity. The court excused eleven of the venire because of their opposition to the death penalty, bringing to twenty-one the total number excused as a result of the in-chambers examination. The fifty-nine veni-repersons remaining were then subjected to general voir dire in the courtroom. Of this group, three were stricken for cause: two for bias in favor of Mills and one because he knew both the Lawhon and the Mills famines. b. Mills was not entitled to a jury “ignorant about relevant issues and events.” Lehder-Rivas, 955 F.2d at 1524. Rather, Mills is entitled to relief only if he establishes that “ ‘the populace from which [his] jury was drawn was widely infected by a 'prejudice apart from mere familiarity with the case.’ ” Devier v. Zant, 3 F.3d 1445, 1462 (11th Cir.1993) (per curiam) (quoting Mayola, 623 F.2d at 999), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 115 S.Ct. 1125, 130 L.Ed.2d 1087 (1995). We are satisfied that the media coverage of this ease “was essentially factual and was not directed at arousing or inciting the passion of the community.” Id. Most of the newspaper articles about the case did not mention Mills, but rather reported the progress of the search for Les Lawhon. Moreover, the articles that mentioned Mills did so in the context of reporting on an unfolding case. No editorials sounded the call for justice, nor did any county officials make public, blatantly prejudicial comments. See Coleman, 778 F.2d at 1538-40 (finding presumed prejudice partially based on the widespread reporting of the county sheriffs statement that he would like to “pre-cook” the defendants in an oven before they were executed). Finally, the disclosure that Mills was in jail for a parole violation did not suggest that juror prejudice should have been presumed. See Marsden v. Moore, 847 F.2d 1536, 1543 (11th Cir.) (holding that petitioner had failed to establish presumed prejudice despite a substantial number of jurors’ exposure to newspaper articles disclosing inadmissable evidence), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 983, 109 S.Ct. 534, 102 L.Ed.2d 566 (1988); cf. Bundy, 850 F.2d at 1425 (“[Prejudice is not presumed simply because the defendant’s criminal record is well publicized.”). Our conclusions regarding the publicity are borne out in the voir dire; those excused for bias constituted less than fifteen percent of the venire. e. As part of his presumed prejudice argument, Mills posits that the victim’s father “repeatedly attempted to influence the proceedings. He gestured from a witness room, harassed spectators, and caused sufficient ruckus to require the judge to move the family back away from the jury.” Mills argues that this conduct, when considered with the pretrial publicity in “the totality of the circumstances,” denied him a fair trial. Mills relies on the requirement of Woods v. Dugger, 923 F.2d 1454 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 953, 112 S.Ct. 407, 116 L.Ed.2d 355 (1991), that this court “evaluate the fairness of [Mills’] trial in light of both pretrial publicity and occurrences taking place during the trial.” Id. at 1457 (emphasis added) (citing Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 352, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 1517, 16 L.Ed.2d 600 (1966)). Woods derived this standard from the Supreme Court’s command in Sheppard that courts evaluate claims of an unfair trial by examining the “‘totality of circumstances.’” Woods, 923 F.2d at 1457 (quoting Sheppard, 384 U.S. at 352, 86 S.Ct. at 1517). Only two of the occurrences Mills complains of are supported by the trial record. On the first day of trial, Roosevelt Randolph, Mills’ attorney, stated during a discussion of his invocation of the witness sequestration rule that “I think they have indicated they have some problems obviously with security and I want to make sure that everybody is watched in that courtroom.” At the beginning of the second day of the trial, Randolph stated, “Judge, there is another matter I want to bring to the Court’s attention. If we could, could we keep these first two rows [in the spectators’ section of the courtroom] empty?” The judge responded, “We have got them roped off already where there won’t be anybody in them.” Later that day, the trial judge, in a meeting with counsel in chambers, explained for the record that [a]t the beginning of the trial this morning, on 12-2-82, at the request of the Defense counsel and at the request of the bailiff, and also by the common sense of the Court and looking at the courtroom, thought it in the best interest of the defendant and all of the personnel of the courtroom to block off the first two rows of seats behind the counsel for the Defense and the State, for their welfare or the possibility of any violence, and the same was so done. The record does not indicate that the clearing of the first two rows of the courtroom was the result of any defined incident, such as a “ruckus” caused by the victim’s father; rather, it appears that the rows were cleared only out of an abundance of caution. In addition, nothing in the record indicates that the jury was aware of any problem. On the morning of the third day of trial, after the jury had been seated and two witnesses had testified, Randolph requested a sidebar. The court granted the request, and the following exchange occurred at sidebar: MR. RANDOLPH: Your Honor, I want the record to clearly reflect that what is going on, I think the need to keep the witnesses in the witness room. Reverend Lawhon just made a gesture, when the door was open right then, to the counsel table while he went to the water fountain. I don’t know what he said or whatever, but I think we need to carefully watch him for security purposes. Because he made some gesture at that point. MR. KIRWIN [the prosecutor]: Did he make it toward you? MR. RANDOLPH: He made it toward the counsel table. THE COURT: Claxton, you make sure the witnesses stay in the witness room. They’re already making gestures toward the counsel table. MR. KIRWIN: For the record, Judge, I agree that needs to be stopped. Mills did not move the court to declare a mistrial when these incidents occurred; nor did he assert, in his motion for a new trial, that they warranted the vacation of the jury’s verdicts and a retrial of the case. Mills did contend on direct appeal, however, that these incidents supported his claim that the trial court erred in refusing to grant a change of venue. The Supreme Court of Florida addressed the allegations and concluded that “[n]one of the incidents of bad feeling that Mills argues took place during the trial were of such magnitude as to render the impartiality of the jury suspect.” Mills I, 462 So.2d at 1078-79. Because the state court addressed these occurrences on the merits, we do so as well. The Due Process Clause requires courts to guard against the possibility that “the atmosphere in and around the courtroom might [become] so hostile as to interfere with the trial process, even though ... all the forms of trial conformed to the requirements of law.” Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S. 532, 561, 85 S.Ct. 1628, 1642, 14 L.Ed.2d 543 (1965) (Warren, C.J., concurring). Even when we consider the pretrial publicity in conjunction with the events recounted above, however, Mills has failed to establish that his jury was not impartial or his trial fundamentally unfair. The trial judge acted quickly to quell any events or actions that could have prejudiced or disturbed the jury. These two “disruptions,” by themselves or in conjunction with the other facts Mills asserts, did not deprive Mills of a fair trial. We do not believe that Mills was “deprived of that ‘judicial serenity and calm to which [he] was entitled.’” Sheppard, 384 U.S. at 355, 86 S.Ct. at 1518 (quoting Estes, 381 U.S. at 536, 85 S.Ct. at 1629). In sum, Mills has not established that the pretrial publicity, standing alone or in combination with the courtroom occurrences he cites, gives rise to a case of presumed prejudice. III. Mills claims that the prosecutor’s pretrial solicitation of comments about potential jurors from the Wakulla County Sheriff, a deputy sheriff, the bailiff assigned to the case, the clerk of the court, and the victim’s father denied him a fair trial. After the list of the venirepersons who were being summoned for the case had been made public, the prosecutor gave copies of the list to those five individuals and asked for comment. They returned the lists with notations opposite the names of the people they knew. Mills first raised this claim in his Rule 3.850 petition, and the trial court denied it on the merits. The Supreme Court of Florida summarily affirmed, see Mills II, 507 So.2d at 603-05; the district court, in denying Mills’ habeas petition, denied the claim as well. Mills does not allege that the prosecutor’s conduct in soliciting the comments, or the making of the comments, was brought to the attention of anyone on the venire list. Nor does he allege that the Sheriff, deputy sheriff, bailiff, court clerk, or victim’s father contacted, directly or indirectly, anyone on the list. The Rule 3.850 court, after hearing testimony on this issue, found “no evidence of misconduct_ No one contacted any venireman and at no time was any venireman aware that the State ever spoke to these individuals.” State v. Mills, slip op. at 6; cf. Johnson v. Wainwright, 778 F.2d 623, 627 (11th Cir.1985) (“[T]here has been no allegation that the jury even knew of [the sheriffs] participation in the jury selection process.”), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 872, 108 S.Ct. 201, 98 L.Ed.2d 152 (1987). The clerk of the court testified that he had furnished similar assistance to Randolph, Mills’ counsel, in the past, and that, over time, both prosecutors and defense counsel had asked the clerk about the suitability of summoned venirepersons for jury service in a case. Randolph testified that he had reviewed the venire list with his investigator and a local black community leader. Mills cites Thompson v. White, 661 F.2d 103 (8th Cir.1981), vacated and remanded, 456 U.S. 941, 102 S.Ct. 2003, 72 L.Ed.2d 463 (1982), aff'd after remand, 680 F.2d 1173 (8th Cir.1982) (per curiam), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1177, 103 S.Ct. 830, 74 L.Ed.2d 1024 (1983), and Henson v. Wyrick, 634 F.2d 1080 (8th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 958, 101 S.Ct. 1417, 67 L.Ed.2d 383 (1981), in support of his argument that the prosecution’s conduct deprived him of a fair trial. In both Thompson and Henson, however, the court granted relief because the county sheriff or his deputy had personally selected the list of prospective jurors for the trial. See Thompson, 661 F.2d at 105; Henson, 634 F.2d at 1081. The prosecutor’s mere solicitation of input from others regarding the venire, in the absence of other factors such as a venire-person’s knowledge of the activity, does not violate principles of due process. IV. Mills alleges that the prosecution disregarded the instruction of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), by withholding exculpatory evidence that could have been used to challenge Fredrick on cross-examination and impeach his credibility. Mills also asserts that the prosecution introduced “false and misleading” evidence at trial. We address these closely related claims together. A prosecutor has a duty to provide a defendant with all material evidence in the State’s possession favorable to the accused. Brady, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. at 1196-97. ‘When the defendant’s guilt or innocence may turn on the reliability of a witness, the prosecutor’s nondisclosure of the evidence affecting the credibility of this witness falls within this general rule.” Alderman v. Zant, 22 F.3d 1541, 1553-54 (11th Cir.1994), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 115 S.Ct. 673, 130 L.Ed.2d 606 (1995). A defendant seeking to establish a Brady violation must prove: “(1) that the government possessed evidence favorable to the defendant (including impeachment evidence); (2) that the defendant does not possess the evidence nor could he obtain it himself with any reasonable diligence; (3) that the prosecution suppressed the favorable evidence; and (4) that had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, a reasonable probability exists that the outcome of the proceedings would have been different.” United States v. Spagnoulo, 960 F.2d 990, 994 (11th Cir.1992) (quoting United States v. Meros, 866 F.2d 1304, 1308 (11th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 932, 110 S.Ct. 322, 107 L.Ed.2d 312 (1989)). Mills points to several pieces of evidence that, in his view, Brady required the prosecutor produce because they could have been used to impeach Fredrick, Galimore, or both. We address each claim in turn. A. Mills claims that the State withheld from the defense Fredrick’s statement to a law enforcement officer in 1980 that he had “ripped off a .357 to blow somebody away.” This information is contained in an “Incident Report-Narrative Form” completed by Sergeant Roxie Vause of the Wakulla County Sheriffs Office on March 28,1980. Sergeant Vause completed the Incident Report, along with an “Offense Report” and an “Arrest Ticket” for Fredrick, during his investigation of Fredrick’s alleged burglary of a residence. Mills argues here, as in his Rule 3.850 motion, that Mills could have used the statement to support his theory that Fredrick was a violent man capable of killing Lawhon himself. Mills claims that this would support his theory that Fredrick, not Mills, shot Lawhon. The district court concluded that the information is not material because it is not exculpatory. We agree. The evidence is neither directly exculpatory, nor does it relate to Fredrick’s credibility. We note in passing that the information contained in the report was of dubious admissibility, see Delap v. Dugger, 890 F.2d 285, 299 (11th Cir.1989) (holding that suppressed evidence is not material when its admissibility at trial is uncertain), cert. denied, 496 U.S. 929, 110 S.Ct. 2628, 110 L.Ed.2d 648 (1990); moreover, we fail to charge the prosecutor with surmising that Mills might have been interested in information of such dubious relevance. B. Mills contends that the prosecution should have disclosed that, two days before he was questioned about the Lawhon murder, Fredrick “talked his way out of charges for possession of stolen property by placing the blame on someone else.” The incident Mills refers to occurred on March 31; in a case unrelated to the Lawhon matter, officers of the Tallahassee Police Department questioned Fredrick and another suspect, Anthony Sharp, about some stolen jewelry. The information Mills claims was suppressed is contained in the deposition of Gary Lassiter, an investigator for the Tallahassee Police Department. Lassiter testified that, upon being questioned, both Fredrick and Sharp initially denied that the jewelry had been stolen, but that Fredrick later told police that Sharp had stolen the jewelry. When confronted with Fredrick’s story, Sharp confessed to the theft; there was no evidence that Fredrick had committed a crime. Mills’ defense attorney, Randolph, attended the deposition and was present when Lassiter made these statements; the information cannot form the basis of a Brady claim because Mills’ counsel knew about it well before Mills’ trial began. C. Mills claims that the State: (1) used threats and other coercive tactics to induce Fredrick to confess to the crimes, to implicate Mills, and to testify against Mills; and (2) fabricated a version of events from Fredrick’s many conflicting stories and made Fredrick testify that the constructed version was true. For instance, Mills alleges that police told Fredrick that Mills was their target and that Fredrick would not be charged if he would testify against Mills; if he refused, however, he would go to the electric chair. Fredrick allegedly acquiesced in the face of these tactics and implicated Mills. As proof that the prosecution team engaged in these tactics, and that Fredrick responded accordingly, Mills attached to his Rule 3.850 motion the affidavits of Fredrick, Willie Mae Gavin (Fredrick’s mother), and Jessie Sampson (Fredrick’s cellmate in the Wakulla County jail at the time Fredrick was being questioned). Fredrick’s affidavit, which was prepared by an attorney from the Office of the Capital Collateral Representative (“CCR”), relates the tactics and coercion Mills’ petition alleged. Sampson’s affidavit states that Fredrick said he was concerned that if he refused to cooperate and implicate Mills, he would get the death penalty; if he cooperated, “they would let [him] go.” Gavin’s affidavit states that A1 Gandy, an investigator from the state attorney’s office, told her that “if Mike didn’t tell the truth of what happened, Mike would be the one to get the chair instead of ... Mills and [Mills] would go scot free. However, if Mike would tell them what they needed to know about ... Mills’ involvement, Mike would get off easy.” The Rule 3.850 court held an evidentiary hearing on this claim at which Fredrick testified. Fredrick admitted signing his affidavit but said that he had not read it until the morning of the hearing. Fredrick testified that the statements in the affidavit — to the effect that the prosecution team had coerced his confession and his implication of Mills with threats and promises — were not true. In short, under oath Fredrick stood by the testimony he gave at trial. As an exhibit accompanying his federal habeas petition, Mills presented a second affidavit by Fredrick — which was also prepared by a CCR attorney — in which Fredrick states that he lied at the Rule 3.850 eviden-tiary hearing when he recanted his first affidavit. Fredrick further states in this second affidavit that he lied because he thought CCR had double crossed him by describing him as a “killer” in Mills’ Rule 3.850 petition. The Rule 3.850 court found “a total lack of any competent evidence that [Fredrick] was threatened, coerced or secretly induced to testify for the State.” State v. Mills, slip op. at 6. The court specifically found that Fredrick’s testimony at the Rule 3.850 evidentia-ry hearing recanting his first affidavit was credible and, furthermore, was corroborated by Gandy’s testimony. The court found no evidence of any agreement between Frederick and the state attorney beyond the agreement to reduce the murder charge that was announced in open court. The Supreme Court of Florida summarily affirmed. Mills II, 507 So.2d at 605. The district court likewise found no credible evidence of threats or promises to Fredrick beyond the exchange of his testimony for a reduced murder charge, which was both known by Mills’ trial counsel and revealed to the jury. We also agree that Mills has produced no credible evidence suggesting that Fredrick was threatened, coerced, or secretly induced to testify for the State. D. Mills contends that the prosecution: (1) should have revealed that Fredrick made statements to the police after May 8, the date of his taped confession, that contradicted his May 8 statement; and (2) argued falsely to the jury that Fredrick decided to tell the truth on May 8 although the prosecution knew that Fredrick had subsequently recanted portions of his May 8 statement. Mills does not indicate when Fredrick made these contradictory statements or their content. Rather, Mills simply argues that Fredrick’s attempts to speak with certain police officers after May 8 establishes that his May 8 statement was untrue and that he wanted to change his story. Mills contends that the pretrial deposition testimony of Charles Landrum, Chief Deputy of the Wakulla County Sheriffs Office, corroborates this theory. The Rule 3.850 court found that Fredrick did not make any inconsistent statements to the State about the Lawhon murder after May 8, 1982. The district court also found no credible evidence to indicate that Fredrick had deviated from his May 8 statement, noting that Landrum’s deposition could fairly be interpreted to show that Fredrick did not deviate from his May 8 statement. We agree. E. Mills contends that the prosecution should have informed the defense that, prior to trial, it prepared typed “scripts” of the testimony Fredrick and Galimore were to present to the jury on direct examination. According to Mills, these scripts contained the questions the witnesses were to be asked and the answers they were to give in response and were given to Fredrick and Galimore to study before they took the stand. Then, before they were called to testify, the prosecution thoroughly “rehearsed” them. The lead prosecutor testified at the Rule 3.850 hearing that the answers appearing in the scripts, which were usually one- or two-word prompts, marked important topics that he wanted to ensure were covered. He also testified that the answers were obtained from Fredrick and Galimore. Mills alleges that he would have used the scripts to impeach Fredrick and Galimore and to convince the jury that their testimony sounded convincing merely because they were well rehearsed and had been told what to say. The Rule 3.850 court found that the lists of questions did not constitute “scripts” and that the prosecution had done nothing improper by using the lists and not disclosing them to Mills. The Supreme Court of Florida addressed this claim at length, finding that the lists of questions were not improper “scripts.” Mills II, 507 So.2d at 603-05. The district court agreed with the findings of the Rule 3.850 court and the supreme court. We also agree that the prosecution’s use of these lists was not improper and that the lists are not Brady material. F. Mills argues that the prosecution: (1) concealed a secret deal made with Galimore to obtain her testimony, see Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154-55, 92 S.Ct. 763, 766, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972) (holding that promises made by the prosecution to a witness in exchange for that witness’ testimony relate directly to the credibility of the witness); and (2) allowed Galimore to testify falsely that she had no deal with the State. The lead prosecutor testified at the Rule 3.850 hearing that Anthony L. Bajoczky, Ga-limore’s attorney, “came to me and said we didn’t have a case and she was going to testify. And I said, ‘You’re probably right. It is a very weak case and that we will probably nolle prosse [sic] it.’ ” The prosecutor testified that he did not know what would have happened had Galimore refused to testify. Mills points to an affidavit Bajocz-ky executed for the prosecution prior to his trial as proof that a secret deal existed between Galimore and the State. In that affidavit, Bajoczky stated: 4. It is my opinion and I am hopeful that if Fawndretta Galimore does testify truthfully as to her knowledge in the case of State of Florida v. John Mills, Jr., ... the State Attorney’s Office will dismiss the charges presently against her.... 5. I have encouraged Fawndretta Gali-more to cooperate with law enforcement in their investigation, but I have not at any time informed Fawndretta Galimore that all charges against her would be dropped if she agreed to and did, in fact, testify. The Rule 3.850 court found “no credible evidence of any kind of ... undisclosed agreement for testimony between the State and Miss Galimore.” State v. Mills, slip op. at 4. The district court also found no evidence of a deal. Nor do we. See Alderman, 22 F.3d at 1555 (“The simple belief by a defense attorney that his client may be in a better position to negotiate a reduced penalty should he testify against a codefendant is not an agreement within the purview of Giglio.”) G. Mills argues that the prosecution should have notified the defense that Fredrick had been placed under psychiatric care and had been given medication for depression after he attempted suicide while incarcerated before Mills’ trial. Mills contends that, had he possessed this information, he could have impeached Fredrick’s testimony during trial because Fredrick denied on cross-examination that he had been under psychiatric care. At the Rule 3.850 hearing, Mills introduced health records from the Wakulla County jail, which contain a detailed log of all medication given to Fredrick during his incarceration there, and Fredrick’s patient records from the Appalachee Community Health Services (“ACHS”), a private organization that provides psychiatric services to prison inmates. The State called Linda Frazier-Williams of ACHS, a registered nurse who treated Fredrick while he was being held, to explain the circumstances of Fredrick’s treatment and the medical significance of his prescription. Frazier-Williams testified that Fredrick became severely depressed and attempted suicide on May 26. Upon learning of the suicide attempt, the jail officials called ACHS to perform an emergency service assessment. During the emergency service assessment, a social worker interviewed Fredrick and recommended that he see a doctor. The doctor prescribed Sinequan — an antidepressant also known as Adapin — for Fredrick’s sleeplessness, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies and ordered that Fredrick be returned to the jail. ACHS staff met with Fredrick three more times — June 7, June 14, and June 21 — to assess his mental state and monitor his behavior. Fredrick displayed appropriate behavior and denied having suicidal thoughts during these follow-up visits. On July 12, Fredrick informed ACHS through jail personnel that he had stopped taking his prescription and did not wish to see any more counselors. Because Fredrick displayed no further indications of depression or suicidal tendencies, ACHS canceled his prescription and discontinued all contact with him. These events concluded more than four months before Mills’ trial began on November 29. Randolph testified that, as former counsel for ACHS, he knew that ACHS treatment records were confidential and would have been unavailable to both the State and the defense without a court order. The jail records, on the other hand, were available on demand by either counsel. After deposing Fredrick on two separate occasions, Randolph knew prior to trial that Fredrick had attempted suicide and had received psychiatric care, but he did not know that Fredrick had taken prescription medication. In any event, Randolph’s strategy was to paint Fredrick as a cold, calculating, compulsive liar, not as a mentally unstable individual; thus, impeachment based on evidence of psychiatric treatment would not have contributed to his attack on Fredrick’s credibility beyond forming the basis of a possible alternate strategy. The Rule 3.850 court found that the ACHS records were unavailable to either side and that the jail records were available upon request; thus, the court concluded that “this information regarding medication was not in exclusive possession and control of the State.” State v. Mills, slip op. at 2. The court also found that Randolph’s trial strategy was not based upon the impeachment of Fredrick on psychiatric grounds. These findings were upheld on appeal. Mills II, 507 So.2d at 603-05. The district court found that Randolph had full access to this information because he deposed Fredrick twice before trial and the jail records were available on request. We agree that the information is not Brady material because it was available to defense counsel and there is no reasonable probability that the evidence would have resulted in a different outcome in light of counsel’s admitted strategy. H. Mills also claims the State allowed false testimony to be presented to the jury and argued “what it knew to be false.” Specifically, Mills alleges that the State: (1) argued to the jury that Fredrick and Gali-more had not been coached when they had actually been coached extensively; (2) allowed Fredrick to testify falsely that he had not received psychiatric treatment after January 1982; (3) coached Fredrick to omit from his testimony the fact that he had retrieved the murder weapon from the bedroom of the Lawhons’ trailer and had given it to Mills; and (4) admitted to the judge that Galimore had lied in her testimony but argued to the jury in closing that she was simply confused about certain details. The Rule 3.850 court found as a matter of fact that there was no evidence that the prosecution placed false testimony before the jury; the Florida Supreme Court agreed. Mills II, 507 So.2d at 604-05. The Rule 3.850 court’s finding of fact as to this claim is entitled to a presumption of correctness. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d); Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U.S. 422, 432, 103 S.Ct. 843, 849-50, 74 L.Ed.2d 646 (1983); Sumner v. Mata, 455 U.S. 591, 597, 102 S.Ct. 1303, 1306-07, 71 L.Ed.2d 480 (1982) (per curiam). We conclude, after an independent review of the record, that the record fairly supports this factual finding. V. Mills argues that Randolph rendered ineffective assistance of counsel when he failed: (1) adequate