Tryon v. Quick, No. 21-6097 (10th Cir. 2023)
Annotate this CasePetitioner-appellant Isaiah Tryon accosted Tia Bloomer, his estranged girlfriend and the mother of his son, in a bus station and stabbed her seven times, resulting in her death. A jury convicted Tryon of first-degree murder. At sentencing, the State of Oklahoma (“State”) presented evidence of Tryon’s lengthy criminal history and impulsively violent behavior, including testimony about him physically abusing Bloomer on other occasions, discharging a firearm at a crowd of fleeing people, and fighting while in custody in 2009 and 2013. In a mitigation effort, Tryon highlighted his difficult upbringing, his parents’ substance abuse, his history of depression, several head injuries, and his low Intelligence Quotient (“IQ”). Tryon also presented expert testimony from John Fabian, a neuropsychologist who testified that Tryon was not intellectually disabled, and conceded that while an IQ score of 68 was low, it did not reflect Tryon’s full intellectual capacity. A jury sentenced Tryon to death. On direct appeal, appellate counsel raised twenty claims of error, none of which involved ineffective assistance of trial counsel. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (“OCCA”) affirmed Tryon’s conviction and sentence. In an application for state post-conviction relief, Tryon argued appellate counsel was ineffective for not arguing that trial counsel was ineffective for: (1) not presenting an intellectual disability defense; (2) not obtaining neuroimaging of Tryon’s brain; and (3) not countering the 2009 jail fight evidence. The OCCA rejected these claims and affirmed the sentence. Tryon next sought federal habeas relief, while also filing a successive application for post-conviction relief with the OCCA. As to the successive application for post-conviction relief, the OCCA concluded all of Tryon’s claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel were procedurally barred because he could have raised them in his original application for post-conviction relief. The federal court also denied relief on thel habeas petition. The issues Tryon's petition presented for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals centered on: (1) appellate counsel's decision not to present an intellectual disability defense; (2) whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not arguing trial counsel was ineffective for not obtaining and presenting neuroimages; (3) whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not arguing trial counsel was ineffective for not countering the 2009 jail fight evidence; and (4) cumulative error based on ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. Having considered each of these issues, the Court found no reversible errors and affirmed Tryon's sentence.
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