KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. A Tennessee jury convicted William Glenn Rogers of kidnapping, rape, and murder, and imposed a sentence of death. Rogers appeals from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. On appeal, Rogers raises claims related to sufficiency of the evidence and the state’s limitation of evidence and cross-examination, as well as five groups of claims of ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt/innocence, sentencing, and motion-for-anew-trial stages. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court’s opinion with respect to the guilt/innocence phase of trial. We conclude, however, that Rogers’s counsel rendered ineffective assistance at the sentencing phase that makes us doubt whether this phase of trial produced a fair result. We further hold that, in Tennessee, ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel can establish cause to excuse a defendant’s procedural default of a substantial claim of ineffective assistance at the motion-for-a-new-trial stage. Accordingly, we AFFIRM in part, REVERSE in part, VACATE in part, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.