Opinion ID: 1575754
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sheila Dodson

Text: Lee further contends that it was ineffective assistance of counsel for Adams not to call Sheila Dodson as a witness in the penalty phase of the trial. The State relied on the testimony of a woman, J.P., who had been brutally raped, as an aggravating circumstance. The State, in addition, introduced the testimony of Vernadean Brazear of the Pulaski County Circuit Clerk's office, that Lee had been tried and convicted for that rape. Sheila Dodson testified as an alibi witness for Lee at the rape trial and related to the jury that she had spoken to Lee on the telephone during the evening that J.P. was raped. Lee contends that Adams erred in not calling Dodson as an alibi witness in the penalty phase of the trial to refute the State's evidence that Lee raped J.P. Adams testified at the August 2007 hearing that he decided not to call Dodson as a witness during the penalty phase of the Reese murder trial because he had an experience with her in a previous case [J.P.'s rape trial], and it was not a good experience. Adams further testified that he made a strategic decision not to use her. Given that the decision about whether to call a certain witness is largely a matter of professional judgment, the circuit court did not err in finding that Adams'[s] decision not to call Dodson to rebut the defendant's guilt of crimes for which he had been convicted, was a matter of trial strategy. Dumond, 294 Ark. at 387, 743 S.W.2d at 783.