Abernathy v. Hobbs, No. 13-1321 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, convicted of raping his two minor nieces, appealed the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. 2254. Plaintiff claimed that his counsel was ineffective by failing to object to an expert vouching for a witness and by stating, during opening statements, that plaintiff would only be called to testify if the state had proven its case. The court affirmed the district court's ruling that plaintiff did not suffer from ineffective assistance of counsel where the state court's decision was not an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law or resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Prisoner case - habeas. Arkansas courts' rejection of Abernathy's claim that he was denied effective assistance of counsel when his attorney failed to object to a defense witness's vouching for the credibility of a complaining witness on the ground that the he had not shown prejudice was not contrary to clearly established federal law, nor was it an unreasonable application of federal law; Arkansas courts' decision that defense counsel's opening argument statement that defendant would not take the stand unless the government established its case beyond a reasonable doubt was a tactical decision and did not prejudice Abernathy as the courts' decision was not contrary to clearly established federal law or an unreasonable application of federal law.
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