Bobby Kennedy v. Darrell Stewart

COOK, Circuit Judge.

Bobby Kennedy, a Michigan prisoner serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, appeals the district court’s denial of his habeas petition claiming that the state trial court’s disqualification of his chosen attorney violated his constitutional right to counsel. Because the Michigan Court of Appeals’s rejection of this claim rested on reasonable factual and legal determinations, we affirm.

I

In 1997, authorities in Grand Rapids found Timmy Thomas fatally shot. Police suspected that Anthony McLiechey drove Kennedy to the scene of the crime and saw him shoot the victim.…