Rhodes

MEMORANDUM **

Kavin Rhodes appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition. Rhodes claims his Sixth Amendment rights were violated because the state trial court denied his three Marsden requests to substitute his court-appointed lawyer for new counsel. See People v. Marsden, 2 Cal.3d 118 , 84 Cal.Rptr. 156 , 465 P.2d 44 (1970) (recognizing that a California criminal defendant may move to have his court-appointed attorney substituted for different counsel if the appointed attorney is rendering inadequate assistance). In denying Rhodes’s three Marsden motions, three different superior court judges found that Rhodes was receiving the effective assistance of counsel. The court also found that Rhodes was generally not credible when articulating how his court-appointed attorney was deficient. Absent clear and convincing evidence that Rhodes was in fact credible, we must defer to the trial court’s credibility determination. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (e)(1). We find that Rhodes has not satisfied his burden of rebutting the trial court’s credibility determination, and we therefore conclude that the trial court’s Marsden rulings were not contrary to or an unreasonable application of…