Rafael Flores v. Joseph Demskie, Superintendent of Woodbourne Correctional Facility

Judge VAN GRAAFEILAND dissents in a separate opinion.

STRAUB, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner Rafael Flores, a New York State prisoner, appeals from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Michael B. Mukasey, Judge), denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In his petition, Flores argues that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel, who admitted after trial that he was unfamiliar with the well-established New York State rule that a prosecutor’s…