Routy Abernathy v. State of Arkansas

Summary

The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed the denial of Routy Abernathy's pro se Rule 37.1 petition attacking his 2009 convictions for two counts of rape, rejecting four claims that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. Applying Strickland, the court held Abernathy failed to demonstrate prejudice from counsel's handling of medical-expert investigation, an opening-statement remark about whether appellant would testify, a missed objection to opinion testimony on a victim's credibility, and the absence of a motion to admit evidence of a victim's prior abuse accusation against her grandfather. Although the court corrected the trial court's conclusion that the failure-to-object claim fell outside Rule 37.1's purview, it found the admitted statement prejudicial but not sufficiently so, given the jury instructions and closing argument, to undermine confidence in the verdict, and it held the prior-accusation evidence inadmissible under the rape-shield law because its falsity was never established.