SILER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which COOK, J., joined.
CLAY, J. (pp. 837-46), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.
OPINION
SILER, Circuit Judge.
Petitioner Edward Jerome Harbison was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree burglary, and grand larceny and was sentenced to death. After unsuccessful direct appeal and state post-conviction proceedings, Harbison filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Harbison argues that the district court erred in failing to issue the writ. Certificates of appealability were granted to allow consideration of Harbison’s claims relating to an alleged Brady violation, ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, and conflict of interest of appellate counsel. For reasons discussed hereafter, the denial of Harbison’s petition is AFFIRMED.
I. BACKGROUND
On January 15, 1983, Frank Russell returned home from work to discover that his wife, Edith, had been murdered. The Russells rented an apartment at the back of their Chattanooga, Tennessee, house to a tenant who, at that time, was away on vacation, and Mrs. Russell’s body was found inside this apartment. Medical examiners determined that the cause of her death was “massive multiple skull fractures with marked lacerations of the scalp and head, expelling brain tissue and literally crushing the victim’s face and disfiguring her beyond recognition.” State v. Harbison, 704 S.W.2d 314, 316 (Tenn. 1986). Mrs. Russell was last seen that afternoon at a neighborhood market, where witnesses spoke with her between approximately 2:30 and 2:45 p.m. Bags of groceries and ignition keys’ were found in Mrs. Russell’s car, which was parked in the driveway, when her body was discovered near midnight. Nothing in the record indicates a precise time of death. The logical inference is that Mrs. Russell was killed a short time after purchasing the groceries in the middle of the afternoon, or else she would have taken them and her keys out of her car. Moreover, the porch lights were off. Her husband said she always left the outside lights on for protection.
The Russells’ house and the rented apartment were burglarized. Missing items included “an RCA XL-100 television, two cable television converters, a quartz heater, a Polaroid 210 camera, a silver Cross pen and pencil set, a jeweler’s loop, a jewelry box, antique jewelry, a marble vase, and Mrs. Russell’s purse.” Id. The police later found the quartz heater, the Polaroid camera, the pen and pencil set, [826]*826and the jeweler’s loop in the residence of Janice Duckett, who was Harbison’s girlfriend and co-defendant David Schreane’s sister. The jeweler’s loop was found in Harbison’s shaving kit. In an adjacent unoccupied apartment, the police found Mrs. Russell’s purse, a jewelry boxf, and two large paper bags containing antique glassware and brassware. The stolen television was found in the residence of Sehre-ane’s girlfriend.
Schreane was taken into custody and questioned on February 21, 1983, when he led police to the missing marble vase. Chemical testing-later revealed the presence of blood on the vase. Furthermore, debris that was vacuumed from the carpet in Harbison’s car revealed crystalline calcite fragments that were consistent with the marble vase. ■
Harbison also was arrested on February 21, 1983. In a taped statement, he confessed to killing Mrs. Russell. Harbison stated that after he drove his girlfriend home from work, he and Schreane went to the Russell home, determined that it was empty, and used a screwdriver to break into the residence. While he and Schreane were carrying the stolen items from the house and the apartment to their car, Mrs. Russell returned' home. Harbison contended that he 'thought Mrs. Russell was reaching for a gün, so he grabbed her. He stated that he hit her with the marble vase, “at the most” two times.
At his trial, Harbison testified that he had not killed Mrs. Russell and that he was not at the Russell house on the day of the murder. He said that he was' at his girlfriend’s home that afternoon and evening. He asserted that his confession was coerced, and that the police had threatened to arrest his girlfriend and take away her children 'if he did not confess. He further testified that the police had told him what to say and that his taped confession, which was played to the jury, had been altered. Finally, he testified that he had purchased the jeweler’s loop at a pawn shop.
William Carter and Vaughn Miller represented Harbison at trial. Before the trial, they made the following discovery requests for exculpatory evidence: a motion for discovery (4/13/1983), a motion for exculpatory evidence (4/13/1983), and a motion to compel disclosure (10/21/1983). As discussed below, they did not receive certain Chattanooga Police Department records, however.
Harbison was convicted and sentenced to death. At sentencing, his trial attorneys presented little mitigation evidence. The only witness offered was Harbison’s mother, who briefly testified that he was a good son, was regularly employed, and completed the eleventh grade of school.
After Harbison’s trial attorneys filed a motion for new trial, Harbison requested new counsel, and the court appointed Rodney. Strong. Strong filed an amendment to the motion for new trial, adding allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel. He asserted that Harbison’s trial attorneys were ineffective because they failed to adequately investigate and present witnesses in support of the defense. Strong argued on appeal that the trial attorneys had made no effort to locate witnesses to pursue Harbison’s alibi defense. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Harbison, 704 S.W.2d at 319-20. .
Thereafter, Harbison filed a post-conviction petition in the trial court. Harbison argued, inter alia, that Strong, his appellate counsel, was ineffective because he did not argue that Harbison’s trial attorneys were ineffective for failing to investigate his family background for purposes of mitigation'.
[827]*827At the post-convietion hearing, Harbison presented evidence of a previously undisclosed family tragedy. When he was a child, his fourteen-year-old sister shot and killed her two young children. She was committed to a state hospital, where she committed suicide. Harbison, his mother, and another sister testified that the family was affected by these events. Harbison stated that he “couldn’t rightly say ... what kind of impact it had on [him].” In addition, they testified that Harbison’s trial attorneys had never asked about the family background.
Carter, one of Harbison’s trial attorneys, also testified that he and Miller did not complete a significant investigation into Harbison’s family background and only discussed in passing a possible psychological examination for Harbison. Carter further acknowledged that they had only briefly prepared Harbison’s mother for her sentencing testimony during a break at trial.
The trial court dismissed Harbison’s post-conviction petition as being without merit. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed this decision, Harbison v. State, No. 03C01-9204-CR-00125, 1996 WL 266114 (Tenn.Crim.App. May 20, 1996), and the Supreme Court of Tennessee denied further review.
In February 1997, Harbison moved in federal district court for appointment of counsel and stay of execution. These motions were granted. The appointed counsel made a public-records request for the Chattanooga Police Department’s records relating to the Russell murder. These documents were received in October 1997, and it was determined that documents in the police file were not in the district attorney’s file.
The police files contained evidence regarding Ray Harrison, who initially was a suspect in this case. Harrison previously was represented by Rodney Strong, who later was appointed to be Harbison’s appellate counsel. Harrison, upon Strong’s advice, refused to take a polygraph examination concerning Russell’s murder. Strong did not disclose to Harbison his prior representation of Harrison, however.
The police files indicate that Harrison’s wife told David Boss that Harrison had admitted to her that he was at the Russell house at the time of the murder. According to Boss, she said, “He was in the house, he didn’t kill her but ... when the door opened they ran.” Boss told the police that Harrison was shaky and “scared to death” the day after the murder. Another witness stated that Harrison’s wife was concerned because she could not find the jacket Harrison was wearing the day of the murder. These files also indicate that Harrison had a disagreement with Mrs. Russell the week before her murder concerning a ring that he attempted to sell to her. Mrs. Russell took the ring to an appraiser, who determined that the ring was fake. Harrison suspected Mrs. Russell switched the real ring for a fake one. The file indicated that Harrison associated with men who lived in the Lynn house, which was across the street from the Russells. Schreane had previously admitted that he was smoking marijuana with Linda Lynn in a parked car in front of the Lynn house on the day of the murder, thus establishing a very tenuous connection between Harrison and Schre-ane. Finally, the file indicated that Harrison previously was involved in a similar burglary, in which a home owner returned and a struggle ensued.
The police files also contained information about Schreane, who implicated Har-bison in the crime. Prior to Harbison’s detainment, Schreane told a witness that Harbison, who was dating Schreane’s sister, had attempted to start a relationship [828]*828with Schreane’s girlfriend when Sehreane was arrested on an unrelated offense. According to a witness, Sehreane asserted that Harbison had killed Mrs. Russell and that he would “be up there with him for that murder case.”
Harbison filed a petition for writ of ha-beas corpus in November 1997. He asserted twenty-six claims as grounds for relief, including a Brady claim, a claim of conflict of interest of appellate counsel who had previously represented a suspect in the case, and an ineffective-assistance-of-appellate-counsel claim for failure to raise on direct appeal the issue that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate Harbison’s background. At the time, the Brady and conflict-of-interest claims had not yet been advanced to a state court.
The district court dismissed Harbison’s petition as meritless in March 2001. It granted Harbison a COA for the following issues: 1) whether the prosecution withheld material, exculpatory evidence from Harbison in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963); and 2) whether Harbi-son received ineffective assistance of appellate counsel because counsel did not argue on direct appeal that his trial attorneys rendered ineffective assistance by failing to adequately investigate and present evidence of his troubled family background. This court granted Harbison a COA for one additional issue: whether appellate counsel labored under a conflict of interest.
In June, 2001, after the district court denied Harbison’s petition, he filed a motion to reopen his state post-conviction proceeding. He later requested that the pleadings be treated as a petition for a writ of error coram nobis. Claims involving the issues for which certificates of appealability have been granted were considered in these state proceedings. In March 2004, after holding an evidentiary hearing, the state court dismissed the motion to reopen, noting that the circumstances in which a post-conviction proceeding could be reopened were strictly limited by Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-30-217.1 The court also dismissed Harbison’s petition for writ of error eoram nobis because it was not timely filed and if determined that too much time had elapsed between Harbi-son’s discovery of the evidence and his filing in state court. The court concluded that there was no due process violation because Harbison had been afforded a reasonable amount of time to litigate these issues.
In May 2004, Harbison moved this court to supplement the record with the new state-proceeding evidence and/or to hold in abeyance pending the resolution of the state-court appeal. These motions were denied, and the record before the district court is considered in this appeal.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
Harbison filed the petition for writ of habeas corpus after the effective date of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”). Therefore, this court’s review is limited by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), as amended by AEDPA. Under this provision, an application for writ of habeas corpus may be granted only if the adjudication of the claim in the state-court proceeding “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 if the state court adjudication “resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of [829]*829the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).
The Supreme Court has emphasized that the statutory phrase “clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), “refers to the holdings, as opposed to the dicta, of [the Supreme Court’s] decisions as of the time of the relevant state-court decision.” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000) (emphasis added). Once the “clearly established Federal law” has been identified, this court considers whether the state-court decision is “contrary to” such law. A state-court decision is contrary to clearly established law if that court “arrive[d] at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme Court] on a question of law or if the state court decide[d] a case differently than [the Supreme Court] has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts.” Id. at 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495. The court also considers whether the state court’s decision involved an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law. This occurs if the court “identifie[d] the correct governing legal principle from [the Supreme Court’s] decisions but unreasonably applie[d] that principle to the facts of the prisoner’s case.” Id. It is important to note, however, that “an unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect or erroneous application of federal law.” Id. at 412, 120 S.Ct. 1495. This court must determine “whether the state court’s application of clearly established federal law was objectively unreasonable.” Id. at 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495.
III. DISCUSSION
A. Ineffective Assistance of Appellate Counsel
Harbison asserts that Strong, who represented him in his motion for new trial and on direct appeal, was ineffective because he failed to argue that Harbison’s trial attorneys were ineffective for failing to investigate and present evidence of Har-bison’s family background. This claim was asserted in Harbison’s post-conviction petition. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of this claim on the merits, and the Supreme Court of Tennessee denied Harbi-son’s request for further review.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals determined that the performance of Harbison’s trial attorneys did not fall below an objective standard of competency. The court considered, inter alia, the fact that the trial attorneys had no knowledge that Harbison or any of his family members had a history of mental illness. The court also noted that the mental illness information provided in the post-conviction hearing related solely to Harbishn’s family and not directly to Harbison himself. The court considered the analysis in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), and determined that the trial attorneys’ performance was not deficient; therefore, the court did not discuss whether Harbison was prejudiced by the allegedly deficient performance of his trial attorneys. The court concluded that, because the trial attorneys’ performance was not ineffective, Strong’s performance also was hot ineffective. Harbison was not prejudiced by an alleged failure to raise the ineffective assistance claim on direct appeal.
“A defendant is entitled to the effective assistance of counsel in his first appeal of right.” Mapes v. Tate, 388 F.3d 187, 191 (6th Cir.2004). The performance of an appellate counsel is properly reviewed under the Strickland standard. “To establish ineffective assistance of counsel, it must be shown that counsel’s performance was deficient and that the deficient per[830]*830formance prejudiced the defense so as to render the trial unfair and the result unreliable.” Id. (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052).
Although Harbison’s trial attorneys’ failure to investigate Harbison’s family background arguably may have been- deficient performance, the evidence presented in Harbison’s state court post-conviction proceeding did not establish prejudice. Therefore, Harbison failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel. “[A]ny deficiencies in counsel’s performance must be prejudicial to the defense in order to constitute ineffective assistance under the Constitution.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 692, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Harbison “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.” Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. At Harbison’s post-conviction hearing, he, his mother, and his sister testified regarding another sister’s murder of her children and her subsequent suicide. While they testified that Harbison was affected by these events, their testimony was vague and did not address any manifestations of this impact. Indeed, Harbison himself testified that he “couldn’t rightly say ... what kind of impact it had on [him].” Thus, this evidence was insufficient to create a reasonable probability that the result would have been different had this information been presented at sentencing. Because Harbison did not demonstrate that he was prejudiced by Strong’s actions, the state court’s determination that Harbison had not established ineffective assistance of counsel was not an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law. See Williams, 529 U.S. at 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495.
B. Brady Claim
To demonstrate that the withholding of police reports was a Brady violation, Harbison must prove that (1) the evidence at issue is favorable to him; (2) the State, either willfully or inadvertently, suppressed that evidence; and (3) prejudice ensued. Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281-82, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999). “[T]here is never a real ‘Brady violation’ unless the nondisclosure was so serious that there is a reasonable probability that the suppressed evidence would have produced a different verdict.” Id. at 281, 119 S.Ct. 1936. To determine whether there is such probability, the withheld evidence must be considered collectively. Castleberry v. Brigano, 349 F.3d 286, 291 (6th Cir.2003) (citing Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 436, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995)).
The district court concluded that Harbison’s Brady claim was procedurally defaulted. As discussed below, we agree. “Where a defendant has procedurally defaulted a claim by failing to raise it on direct review, the claim may be raised in habeas only if the defendant can first demonstrate either ‘cause’ and actual ‘prejudice,’ or that he is ‘actually innocent.’ ” Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 622, 118 S.Ct. 1604, 140 L.Ed.2d 828 (1998) (internal citations omitted).
. Harbison first asserted this alleged Brady violation in proceedings before the district court in November 1997. . At that time, Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-30-202(c)2 provided that “[i]n no event may more than one (1) petition for post-conviction relief be filed attacking a single judgment.” Because Harbison had previously filed one petition for post-conviction relief, he was not permitted to file a second peti[831]*831tion. Furthermore, because the circumstances in which a post-conviction proceeding could be reopened were strictly limited by TenmCode Ann. § 40-30-217,3 Harbi-son was unable to reopen his post-conviction proceedings in 1997. See Harris v. State, 102 S.W.3d 587, 591 (Tenn.2003) (“A claim that the State suppressed or failed to disclose exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady simply is not one of the statutory grounds for reopening a post-conviction proceeding.”).
Harbison also would not have been able to pursue a petition for a writ of error coram nobis at the , time he filed in the district court. “Coram nobis claims may be based upon any ‘newly discovered evidence relating to matters litigated at the trial’ so long as the petitioner also establishes that [he] was ‘without fault’ in failing to present the evidence at the proper time.” Id. at 592-93. These claims must be filed within one year after a conviction becomes final. Tenn.Code Ann. § 27-7-103. The Tennessee courts have, at times, allowed exception to strict enforcement of statutes of limitations, however. “[D]ue process requires that potential litigants be provided an opportunity for the presentation of claims at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner.” Burford v. State, 845 S.W.2d 204, 208 (Tenn.1992). As noted by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, “due process may prohibit strict application of the statute of limitations in a post-conviction case ‘when the grounds for relief, whether legal or factual, arise after ... the point at which the limitations period would normally have begun to run.’ ” Sample v. State, 82 S.W.3d 267, 272 (Tenn.2002) (quoting Sands v. State, 903 S.W.2d 297, 301 (Tenn.1995)).
When such a case is evaluated, a “court must determine whether application of the limitations period would deny the petitioner a reasonable opportunity to present the claim by balancing the liberty interest in collaterally attacking constitutional violations occurring during the conviction process ... against the State’s interest in preventing the litigation of stale and fraudulent claims.” Id. at 272-73 (quotations omitted). The Supreme Court of Tennessee has refused “to apply a bright-line period of time in which to raise later-arising issues be it one year or three,” Wright v. State, 987 S.W.2d 26, 30 (Tenn.1999), but has instead instructed that the analysis be completed “in light of the specific facts of the case.” Id.
Although Harbison did not receive the police files that contained the evidence that is the basis of this claim until October 1997, he could have requested and obtained those files more than five years earlier. In January 1992, the. Tennessee Court of Appeals held in an unpublished decision that police investigation files were not exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Law. Capital Case Res. Ctr. of Tenn., Inc. v. Woodall, No. 01-A-019104CH00150, 1992 WL 12217 (Tenn.Ct. App. Jan.29, 1992). Based upon the Woo-dall decision, the Supreme Court of Tennessee has recognized January 29,1992, as a date upon which police files became available to a post-conviction petitioner.4 Wright, 987 S.W.2d at 29.
[832]*832Harbison alleges in his brief that “counsel attempted post-trial to gain access to the police records despite state law prohibiting their disclosure,” but “one of the investigating detectives and the police chief testified post-triahthat the.police records could not be located.” A review of the transcripts to which Harbison refers suggests the individuals were simply unaware of a particular file’s location, not that these individuals had been charged with the task of locating that particular file. At the post-conviction examination, Detective Wilhoit simply stated, “I don’t have any knowledge as to [Detective Foster’s file’s] location. It’s an old case and normally we keep our old files after the case is over with, so what he did with it I have no information.” The following exchange occurred when Chief Detective Davis was questioned at a post-conviction evidentiary hearing:
Q: Do you have access to any of the former files at the police department where you could refer to these?
A: No.
Q: We’ve been told by C.L. Wilhoit that since Ed Foster’s death that they have apparently lost his file on Harbi-son. Would there not be any other?
A: I don’t see how they could have lost it. Of course, I don’t know.
Q: That’s what he testified to is that they lost it because they couldn’t bring it to court. Would you have any idea that they would have another one anywhere that we might be able to get access to it?
A: They have it if they’d just find it.
Q: Okay. So you think they’ve misplaced it as opposed to losing it?
A: I know it was still there when I left.
Q: When did you leave?
A: ’83.
Q: Okay. Of course, Detective Foster has died since then?
A: Yes, but there is no way for it to have got out of there unless somebody stole it. It’s still there.
If anything, the exchanges between Har-bison’s attorney and Detective Wilhoit and Chief Detective Davis would have indicated to the attorney that there was a very strong possibility that the relevant files would be available if requested through the appropriate channels.
Furthermore, because disclosure of the police files was prohibited in 1991, when Harbison had last requested them, it is not unreasonable to expect that he again would request them within a reasonable time after they could be released. The files became available in 1992, but Harbi-son waited another five years to request them. As a result, by the time Harbison filed his petition in the district court in 1997, Tennessee courts were no longer able to consider a petition for writ of error coram nobis. The aforementioned statements from Detective Wilhoit and Chief Detective Davis are insufficient to justify the five-year delay. It cannot be said that the basis of this claim was “reasonably unknown” to petitioner’s lawyers.
Harbison argues his Brady claim was not procedurally defaulted because this procedural scheme is neither adequate nor independent. See, e.g., Hicks v. Collins, 384 F.3d 204, 211 (6th Cir.2004) (“[T]he state procedural rule must have been an adequate and independent state procedural ground upon which the state could rely to foreclose review of a federal constitutional claim.”). In Hutchison v. Bell, this court recognized that “Tennessee courts consistently enforce a procedural scheme that encompasses both the one-year limitations period and a court-recognized procedure [833]*833for tolling that statute when specific due process grounds are presented.” 303 F.3d 720, 738 (6th Cir.2002). Harbison asserts that these procedural rules do not represent adequate state procedural grounds because the Burford principle may create inconsistent results. He further asserts that the procedural grounds are not independent of federal law because application of Burford to a later-arising Brady claim requires consideration of the merits of the Brady claim. “In habeas, if the decision of the last state court to which the petitioner presented his claim fairly appeared to rest primarily on resolution of those claims, or to be interwoven with those claims, and did not clearly and expressly rely on an independent and adequate state ground, a federal court may address the petition.” Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 735, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991). An evaluation of the adequacy and independence of a hypothetical state court decision is unnecessary in this case, however:
[I]f the petitioner failed to exhaust state remedies and the court to which the petitioner would be required to present his claims in order to meet the exhaustion requirement would now find the claims proeedurally barred ... there is a procedural default for purposes of federal habeas regardless of the decision of the last state court to which the petitioner actually presented his claims.
Id. at 735, n. 1, 111 S.Ct. 2546 (emphasis added).
Because this claim hás been procedurally defaulted, it may be considered on its merits only if Harbison demonstrates cause and prejudice. Bousley, 523 U.S. at 622, 118 S.Ct. 1604. Harbison argues that the - State’s failure to provide him with the police files demonstrates cause. He asserts that “[t]he cause inquiry ... turns on events or circumstances external to the defense.” Banks v. Dretke, 540 U.S. 668, 696, 124 S.Ct. 1256, 157 L.Ed.2d 1166 (2004) (quotation omitted). In Banks, the Supreme Court rejected a state’s argument that the cause inquiry should revolve around the petitioner’s conduct,, which in that case included an alleged lack of appropriate diligence in pursuing a Brady claim. Id. at 695, 124 S.Ct. 1256. The Court noted that “[a] rule .. declaring ‘prosecutor may hide, defendant must seek,’ is not tenable in a system constitutionally bound to accord defendants due process.” Id. at 696. Banks, however, addressed a situation in which the prosecution had repeatedly asserted that all Brady material was disclosed, but nevertheless continued to conceal such material. In particular, the Court noted that “[ejach.time [a witness] misrepresented his dealings with the police, the prosecution allowed that testimony to stand uncorrected.” Id. at 672, 124 S.Ct. 1256. The Court concluded: “In short, because the State persisted in hiding [the witness’s] informant status and misleadingly represented that it had complied in full with its Brady disclosure obligations, Banks had cause for failing to investigate, in state post conviction proceedings, [the witness’s] connections to [the police].” Id. at 693, 124 S.Ct. 1256. There is no evidence of such prosecutorial concealment and misrepresentation in Harbison’s case, however.5 At the post-[834]*834conviction hearing, the police officers did not indicate that the files did not exist or that they would refuse to provide them to Harbison, but rather that they did not know where the files were located. There is no evidence in the record before the district court that those individuals were charged with the task of locating that particular file. Nor has Harbison presented any evidence that would indicate that the files were intentionally concealed.
If Harbison had requested the police files within a reasonable time, he would have had various options for state-court consideration of this claim. Because his post-conviction proceeding was on appeal through 1996, he had the opportunity to move to remand for consideration of new evidence. See Laney v. State, 826 S.W.2d 117, 118 (Tenn.1992). In addition, had he requested the files within a reasonable time, he could have filed a petition for writ of error coram nobis or, prior to 1995, an additional post-conviction petition.6 By the time Harbison filed the petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court, however, these opportunities were no longer available to him. Because Harbison has failed to demonstrate cause for his failure to argue this claim before the state courts, this claim may not be considered by this court.
Although Harbison has not demonstrated cause for his failure to pursue these claims in state court, we nevertheless here address the issue of prejudice to Harbison that may be attributed to the withholding of this evidence. Harbison has not demonstrated such prejudice. While the relevant evidence may raise some question about Harrison’s potential proximity to the Russell murder and Sehreane’s motivation in identifying Harbi-son as the murderer, this evidence is not sufficient to create a reasonable probability that the result of the trial would have been different. The evidence concerning Harrison reveals that he was initially a suspect in the Russell murder, and this evidence could have been used by Harbi-son’s counsel in an attempt to shift culpability to another individual. However, this evidence, even when considered in combination with allegations regarding Schre-ane’s reasons for identifying Harbison, does not create a reasonable doubt that the trial would have ended differently. The district court meticulously analyzed this evidence and found that it was not a Brady violation and it was not material to the defense. We agree. Harbison’s confession to the murder is strong evidence of his guilt, which this new evidence was unlikely to overcome.
Although the claim has been proeedurally defaulted, and we therefore do not directly reach the merits of this case, the above cause and prejudice discussion parallels requirements for the Brady analysis. Because Harbison has not demonstrated [835]*835such cause and prejudice, he has not established a Brady violation.
While we decide the case on procedural default, as did the district court, it makes little sense to discuss in detail the Brady issue. Nevertheless, certain explanations may be in order. First, the district court found that even if the alleged claim was not procedurally defaulted, there was no Brady violation. Second, the district court found that evidence involving the victim’s nefarious activities of buying and selling stolen merchandise was not relevant to the case. Third, on the evidence involving Schreane, the court found that either most of the evidence was admitted at trial, was not material, or was not wholly in the control of the prosecution. As the dissent observes, the district court found that the statement by Schreane that he was angry at Harbison for making romantic overtures to Schreane’s girlfriend could not have altered the judgment of the jury, because Schreane did not testify at trial. Finally', concerning the evidence which involved Harrison, it was not material, because Harbison raised an alibi defense and testified that his confession to the crime was false.
We agree with the district court on the merits, but we will further discuss some of these details in our explanation of this ruling. Several assertions in the dissent need to be clarified. First, the dissent states that Charlene Harrison told Detective Foster that her husband was with the Lynns, who lived across the street from the victim, on the day of the murder. That is correct in part, but the full statement was that “she knew Ray did not kill Ms. Russell because he spent all evening with Tommy and Larry Lynn in Ft. Oglethorpe and they returned Saturday night at between 10:30 and 11:00 P.M. on 1-15.”7 Thus, no one put Harrison at the Lynn house on the day of the murder, unlike the admission of Schreane that he smoked marijuana with Linda Lynn in front of the house on the afternoon of the murder.
Second, although Charlene Harrison placed Ray Harrison at the scene of the crime, she said that he was there with at least one other person. This did not help Harbison’s alibi, for Harbison and Schre-ane both could have1 been with Harrison at the time. She never did identify who the other person or persons were. Moreover, after Boss had told the officers of his conversation with Charlene Harrison on January 19, 1983, the officers sent an unnamed informant with a “tape” to get Charlene Harrison to admit what she had allegedly told Boss, but she did not convey the same information and would not confirm the information previously received. Third, the dissent says that Boss asserted that Harrison was “scared” the morning after the murder. However, there are several reasons why Harrison might be concerned by the interest from the police in searching his residence with a search warrant, because he was involved in drug trafficking and was wanted by the authorities in Florida, where he was eventually arrested. In fact, Harrison allegedly told Boss that when he found the police were coming with a search warrant, he went over to his mother’s apartment and got rid of “some pills.”
[836]*836Finally, the dissent suggests that Harbi-son could have used Schreane’s jailhouse statement on cross examination of Detective Foster, as to whether the police pursued an investigation of Harrison in light of Schreane’s motive to falsely implicate Harbison. There is a question as to the admissibility of that statement, but even if admissible, there was some detailed investigation in the Harrison files between January 16-31, 1983. Apparently, it was not until February 17, 1983, when the detectives first learned that Schreane had told Omenys West that Harbison had killed Russell. Later, that day, Schreane admitted that he had been .at the Russell house with Harbison on the day of the murder. Thereafter, the police found some of the stolen items in the custody of Harbison’s girlfriend, Schreane led police to the stolen TV set and to the murder weapon, and Harbison finally confessed to hitting Mrs. Russell twice with the vase.
C. Appellate Counsel’s Conflict of Interest
Harbison claims that Strong, his appellate counsel, suffered from a conflict of interest because he had previously represented Harrison, who was initially a suspect in the Russell murder. As a result, Harbison argues, Strong was unable to make arguments that would support Harbison’s assertions that he had not committed the crime. He alleges that, had Strong not been burdened by this conflict and had he been aware of the evidence concerning Harrison in the police files, Strong would have been able to make the argument that Harrison had opportunity and motive to commit the crime. This claim also was not introduced before the state courts until after the district court denied Harbison’s petition. As a result, much of the above procedural default analysis is relevant to this claim. Harbison has failed to demonstrate cause for his failure to assert this claim until his petition to the district court.
Again, although Harbison has not demonstrated cause for his failure to pursue these claims in state court, we nevertheless address the issue of prejudice to Har-bison that may be attributable to his counsel’s alleged conflict. Harbison has not demonstrated such prejudice. A possibility of conflict is insufficient to establish a violation of Harbison’s Sixth Amendment rights, and no violation occurs where the conflict is irrelevant or merely hypothetical. See Moss v. United States, 323 F.3d 445, 463-64 (6th Cir.2003). Harbison argues that Strong rendered ineffective assistance by not raising certain issues involving Harrison’s potential involvement in Russell’s death. Relying on the new evidence discussed in his Brady claim, Harbison asserts that Strong failed to pursue and present evidence concerning Harrison that could have created doubt about Harbi-son’s guilt. However, as noted above, the new evidence presented concerning Harrison was unlikely to change the result of Harbison’s trial. Furthermore, Harbison has presented no facts to demonstrate that Strong was aware of the additional evidence concerning Harrison and that he decided not to present the additional evidence due to his representation of Harrison. Finally, the fact that Strong represented Harbison during his motion for a new trial and on direct appeal, rather than during the trial, would reduce the danger posed by any conflict. Harbison has not cited any specific instances in the record where his interests were impaired by Strong’s prior representation of Harrison.
IV. MATTERS OUTSIDE THE RECORD
The dissent has referenced matters which are not part of the record on review, as they are records from the second state [837]*837post-conviction review held subsequent to the judgment by the district court herein. Inasmuch as we denied Harbison leave to supplement the record to provide the second post-convictions materials, it would not be appropriate for us to comment about those matters. This case is on appeal from the district court, which did not have any of those subsequent materials before it. “We cannot consider a report that is not part of the record.” United States v. Bonds, 12 F.3d 540, 552 (6th Cir.1993). But see Thompson v. Bell, 373 F.3d 688, 691 (6th Cir.2004) (allowing record on appeal to be supplemented under “our equitable power”), cert, granted on other grounds, — U.S.-, 125 S.Ct. 823, 160 L.Ed.2d 609 (2005).
Similarly, the dissent quotes from a subpoena directed to Wilhoit to bring with him to the post-conviction hearing “[a]ny and all records, files or documents in his possession or in the possession of the Chattanooga Police Department relative to the case of State of Tennessee v. Edward Jerome Harbison, Jr.” That also is not in the record from the district court, nor was it mentioned in Harbison’s briefs to this court. Additionally, Harbison did not ask to supplement the record with that document under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(e). Therefore, it would also not be appropriate to comment about that subpoena.
y. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court denying the writ is AFFIRMED.