Cobb v. Hart, 295 Ga. 89

William Cobb was convicted in 2005 of child molestation and related crimes involving three of his children, sentenced to life in prison plus 140 years.
On direct appeal, the sole issue involved admission of similar transactions evidence; the conviction was upheld by the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2009.
In 2010 Cobb filed a habeas corpus petition raising fourteen grounds, including ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for the H.C. videotaped interview issue.
The habeas court denied relief; this appeal addressed whether appellate counsel was ineffective for not raising the H.C. age-based admissibility issue.
Trial had admitted H.C.’s videotaped forensic interview (she was 14 at the interview, 16 at trial) under the child hearsay statute or as a prior consistent statement.
The court ultimately affirmed habeas relief denial on the ineffective assistance claim and upheld the admissibility reasoning.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge H.C.’s interview on child hearsay grounds.	Cobb	Cobb's appellate counsel did not raise the age-based hearsay issue on appeal	Appellate counsel was not ineffective; issue moot due to admissibility as prior consistent statement and lack of prejudice
Whether admission of H.C.’s videotaped interview was harmless error given trial testimony and other corroboration.	Cobb	Interview was cumulative or non-prejudicial given trial cross-examination	Admissibility affirmed as harmless error given the interview’s cumulative impact and cross-examination support

Cuzzort v. State, 254 Ga. 745 (Ga. 1985) (prior consistent statement admissible when veracity in issue and witness subject to cross-examination)
Cowart v. State, 294 Ga. 333 (Ga. 2013) (prior consistent statement requires predate allegation of recent fabrication; witness cross-examined)
Dasher v. State, 285 Ga. 308 (Ga. 2009) (pretrial in limine ruling preserves appellate review of admissibility)
Bryant v. State, 271 Ga. 99 (Ga. 1999) (admissibility preserved when pretrial motion denied)
Watts v. State, 246 Ga. App. 367 (Ga. App. 2000) (general hearsay objection insufficient to preserve claims about child hearsay reliability)