Archer

A jury found James Henderson Archer guilty of four counts of lewd and lascivious conduct upon a child under the age of fourteen in violation of Penal Code section 288, subdivision (a). Two of the counts alleged a “first” and “last” incident of digital vaginal contact and the other two counts alleged a “first” and “last” incident of penile vaginal contact. The jury was unable to reach agreement on two other charged counts of section 288, subdivision (a), which alleged a “first” and “last” incident of oral genital contact. The trial court declared a mistrial as to the counts alleging oral genital contact, and later ordered those two counts dismissed on the motion of the prosecutor. The trial court sentenced Archer to a prison term of eight years.

In this consolidated appeal and petition for habeas corpus, Archer asserts two major points of error: (1) there was no evidence of any specific act of digital vaginal contact or penile vaginal contact upon which the jury could agree; and (2) he was denied effective assistance of counsel because counsel did not object to testimony concerning the child abuse accommodation syndrome and to the admission of a videotape of the victim’s…