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RHODERICK BOYD v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION (AC 31351)
Gruendel, Beach and Schaller, Js. Argued April 12--officially released July 19, 2011

(Appeal from Superior Court, judicial district of New Haven, Cronan, J.) Mary Boehlert, special public defender, for the appellant (petitioner). Timothy F. Costello, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, state's attorney, and Vicki Melchiorre, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (respondent).

Opinion

SCHALLER, J. The petitioner, Rhoderick Boyd, appeals following the habeas court's granting of his petition for certification to appeal from the judgment denying his amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus. On appeal, the petitioner claims that the court improperly rejected his claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Specifically, he claims that his trial counsel, Donald O'Brien, rendered ineffective assistance because (1) he failed to object on two occasions to testimony offered by the state's expert witness, a psychiatrist who testified that the victim had been sexually assaulted, and (2) he did not undertake an independent investigation or take photographs of the area of the building where the assault took place. We affirm the judgment of the habeas court. The petitioner's conviction was the subject of a direct appeal before this court, State v. Boyd, 89 Conn. App. 1, 872 A.2d 477, cert. denied, 275 Conn. 921, 883 A.2d 1247 (2005), overruled in part on other grounds by State v. Kemah, 289 Conn. 411, 432, 957 A.2d 852 (2008). The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our disposition of the petitioner's claims. After a jury trial, the petitioner was convicted of sexual assault in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree and assault in the third degree, and was sentenced to an effective prison term of eighteen years incarceration, suspended after fourteen years, and twenty-five years of probation. Id., 2, 6

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