Neal

*294 MEMORANDUM **

Sean Neal appeals the district court’s denial of his habeas corpus petition. He contends that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated when he was not provided substitute counsel during his motion for new trial. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 . We affirm.

Because the facts are known to the parties, we do not recite them here. We may reverse the state court’s decision under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) when the decision was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Neal was not entitled to an automatic appointment of substitute counsel during his new trial motion. 2 The only remaining way for Neal to show that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated, thus that the decision was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of federal law,” is to show that he was denied effective assistance of counsel. In Strickland, v. Washington, the Supreme Court said that “[t]he benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness must be whether counsel’s conduct so undermined the proper…