Charles Leasure v. A. L. Lockhart, Superintendent, Cummins Unit, Arkansas Department of Corrections

In 1971, the petitioner was convicted in Arkansas state court of the first degree rape of his seven-year-old daughter. He was sentenced to imprisonment for forty years. After he was denied relief by the state supreme court on direct appeal 1 and on appeal of the denial of a post-conviction motion, 2 he filed a petition for habeas corpus in federal District Court. The sole ground for relief alleged in that petition was that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel at trial. After an evidentiary hearing, the District Court denied the petition. On appeal, the petitioner contends that…