Neil Chapman v. Robert Lampert

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Neil Chapman (Chapman) appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 . Chapman seeks ha-beas relief from his state court conviction for thirteen counts arising from the sexual abuse of his daughter, “B.C.”, on the ground that he was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. Because the parties are familiar with the facts and procedural history, we do not restate them here except as necessary to explain our disposition. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 . We affirm.

We review de novo the district court’s denial of habeas relief. Dows v. Wood, 211 F.3d 480, 484 (9th Cir.2000). Habeas relief is warranted only if the state court’s decision “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court,” 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d)(1), or “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding,” id. § 2254(d)(2). We review de novo a district court’s conclusions regarding procedural default. Pirtle v. Morgan, 313 F.3d 1160, 1168 (9th…