Routy Abernathy v. Ray Hobbs

BYE, Circuit Judge.

An Arkansas jury found Routy Abernathy guilty of raping his two minor nieces in violation of Ark.Code Ann. § 5-13-103. He received a sentence of sixty years of imprisonment. After exhausting his state court remedies, Abernathy filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court 1 dismissed all four counts of the § 2254 petition, but granted a certificate of ap-pealability on two counts. On appeal, Abernathy claims his counsel was ineffective by failing to object to an expert vouching for a witness and by stating, during opening…