143700P.pdf   01/14/2016  Nicole Walker  v.  United States
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  14-3700
   U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines   
   [PUBLISHED] [Riley, Author, with Smith and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] 
   Prisoner case - Habeas. For the court's opinion in defendant's direct 
   appeal, see United States v. Walker, 688 F.3d 416 (8th Cir. 2012). The 
   district court did not err in denying Walker's Section 2255 motion as she 
   was not entitled to retroactive application of Alleyne; there is no 
   constitutional right to counsel for the filing of a certiorari petition, 
   and Walker's claim that counsel was ineffective in failing to raise the 
   Allyne claim in her certiorari petition was properly rejected by the 
   district court; claim that Walker's right to effective assistance of 
   counsel is based on 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3006A rejected as there is no authority 
   requiring counsel to file a certiorari petition such as would provide a 
   basis for sentencing relief under Section 2255; to the extent counsel's 
   made any error in estimating the sentence Walker might face, the mistake 
   did not render her guilty plea involuntary under these facts; Walker was 
   ineligible for safety-valve sentencing, and any error her counsel may have 
   made in failing to more fully explain her conduct at a proffer meeting was 
   not so serious as to create a constitutional violation of Walker's right 
   to counsel; failure to appeal the safety-valve issue was an exercise of 
   sound appellate strategy and did not violate her right to effective 
   assistance; the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying an 
   evidentiary hearing.