Lemaster v. State, 2015 Ark. 167

Roger Lemaster was convicted of raping his stepdaughter; conviction affirmed on direct appeal.
Lemaster filed a Rule 37 postconviction petition claiming ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to play an audio message at trial.
The recording contained the victim and her mother mocking Lemaster and using a homosexual epithet; Lemaster argued it would impeach the victim’s credibility.
This Court remanded for an evidentiary hearing on that specific claim; the recording was played at the hearing and trial counsel testified why he omitted it at trial.
Trial counsel testified he knew of the tape and purposely chose not to introduce it because he believed the victim’s testimony already showed her hostility and further highlighting it would alienate the jury.
The circuit court denied relief again, finding counsel’s omission was reasonable trial strategy; this appeal followed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether counsel was ineffective for not playing the audio recording	Failure to introduce the tape deprived Lemaster of impeachment evidence and reasonable doubt	Counsel made a strategic decision to avoid further alienating the jury; omission was tactical	Counsel’s decision was reasonable trial strategy; no ineffective assistance found

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (two-prong ineffective-assistance standard)
Wainwright v. State, 307 Ark. 569 (1992) (prejudice must undermine confidence in outcome)
McDaniel v. State, 282 Ark. 170 (1984) (witness examination is tactical decision)
Nelson v. State, 344 Ark. 407 (2001) (tactical choices not grounds for postconviction relief)
Hicks v. State, 289 Ark. 83 (1986) (extent of witness questioning is trial tactics)
Bryant v. State, 2013 Ark. 305 (counsel afforded wide latitude in strategy)