Hinesley v. Knight

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his sexual molestation of minor conviction on grounds that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to two inculpatory out-of-court statements made by victim and foster brother of victim that concerned circumstances surrounding charged offense. Defense counsel stated that he opted to forego in instant bench trial any hearsay objection to introduction of said statements, since his trial strategy was to highlight all inconsistencies contained in said statements given by said witnesses in order to generate finding that said witnesses were incredible. As such, state court could properly find that trial counsel’s strategy was reasonable, even though trial court eventually found that victim was credible in her accusations against defendant. Moreover, defendant could not establish prejudice through admission of said statements since witnesses generally gave trial testimony that was consistent with out-of-court statements, such that said out-of-court statements were merely cumulative to testimony elicited at trial.