Muong

*305 MEMORANDUM *

Ravun Muong is serving a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole for the drive-by murder and attempted murder of two rival gang members. 1 Muong was tried along with a fellow gang member, Noe Viramontes. The only issue Muong raises on appeal is ineffective assistance of counsel due to (i) trial counsel’s failure to object to the admission of his co-defendant’s confession and (ii) trial counsel’s failure to move for a severance of Muong’s trial from his co-defendant’s. Muong argues that the California Supreme Court unreasonably erred in denying his ineffectiveness claims.

The district court did not reach the question of trial counsel’s defective performance because it first determined that Muong had not established any resulting prejudice. Likewise, we need not, and do not, determine whether counsel’s performance was deficient before examining whether his counsel’s conduct was prejudicial as required by the second prong of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 697 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Muong argues that his trial counsel’s failure to object to the introduction of Viramontes’ confession and to move for severance of his…