Pratt

*583 MEMORANDUM ***

Joseph E. Pratt appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habe-as petition contending he was denied effective assistance of counsel. Pratt argues his trial counsel’s decision to stipulate to facts establishing crimes at the Turner residence and to the later shooting by his brother of Officer Jacobson amounted to a stipulation to felony murder. The district court disagreed, finding it was not an objectively unreasonable strategic decision— when faced with the death penalty and overwhelming evidence of guilt — to admit to obvious facts and instead focus on contesting the more serious charges of first-degree murder. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 , and we affirm.

We review de novo a district court’s denial of habeas corpus. Singh v. Ashcroft, 351 F.3d 435, 438 (9th Cir.2003) (citation omitted). Even if the conviction at issue occurred in 1989, the provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) apply because Pratt filed his petition after April 24, 1996, the effective date of AEDPA. Patterson v. Stewart, 251 F.3d 1243, 1245 (9th Cir.2001). Under AEDPA, as applied here, habeas relief is…