Reynolds v. State
Reynolds v. State
Opinion of the Court
The State asks this court to dismiss the pending appeal of an order denying and dismissing appellant Edward Joseph Reynolds's petition for postconviction relief under Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.1 (2017).
Reynolds appealed the judgment at issue here, which reflected his convictions for aggravated assault and kidnapping and imposed an aggregate sentence of life imprisonment. This court affirmed. Reynolds v. State ,
The time requirements in Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.2(c) are mandatory, and when a petition under Rule 37.1 is not timely filed, a trial court shall not consider the merits of the petition and grant postconviction relief. Gardner v. State ,
The State contends that the Rule 37 petition did not fulfill the conditions under Rule 37.2(g) for the petition to be deemed filed on the date of its deposit in the prison's legal-mail system because the record does not contain an envelope or other post-marked documents to verify Reynolds's statement concerning the date the petition was mailed. However, the Rule requires that the circuit clerk, not Reynolds, retain the envelope in which the Rule 37 petition was received and include a copy in the record on appeal. This information is needed for any review concerning whether Rule 37.2(g) has been satisfied, but the duty to satisfy that particular condition is the clerk's and not one of Reynolds's duties to fulfill.
The State also contends that, because the date of swearing for Reynolds's affidavit in support of his request to proceed in forma pauperis on the Rule 37 petition was beyond the due date, the petition could not have been timely received in the condition necessary for filing. The State appears to believe that the petition could not have been filed until the clerk received Reynolds's application for in forma pauperis status. Yet, the date that the petition was considered to have been received by the clerk would be the correct filing date, even if Reynolds had tendered the petition without having submitted a request to proceed as a pauper, if he cured the defect in form in a timely manner. See O'Fallon v. O'Fallon ,
There are other, less obvious costs associated with the proceedings that, at times, may require an application to proceed as a pauper even in cases for which no filing fee is assessed. Regardless of the reason that the application may have been needed, a delay in the petition's filing that resulted from the requirement of the form, without a reasonable opportunity to cure the defect, is not acceptable in a criminal case with time-sensitive filing requirements. Our own clerk follows a practice of allowing a reasonable period of time in which to remit an omitted filing fee or provide an appropriate application for pauper status for those appellate records or pleadings with time sensitivity, and when the applicable filing fee or other cure is not received until after the filing deadline, the filing date is the date tendered.
Because the clerk failed to provide a copy of the envelope in which the petition was received, we remand for the circuit clerk to provide a supplemental record with a copy of that envelope. If the clerk has failed in her duty to retain the envelope, *872then the circuit court is to hold a hearing to settle the record, to the extent possible, and enter an order that provides findings on the date that the petition was received by the clerk, the date of the postmark on the envelope, and the filing date of the petition. The supplemental record, including the transcript of any hearing conducted, is to be returned within thirty days of the date of this order.
Remanded for supplemental record.
Kemp, C.J., and Wood and Womack, JJ., dissent.
The State also filed a motion to stay briefing schedule in which it requested an additional thirty days to file its brief should this court deny the pending motion to dismiss. That motion was granted by syllabus entry on September 24, 2018.
Dissenting Opinion
Appellant, Edward Joseph Reynolds, appeals the circuit court's order denying his petition for postconviction relief under Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.1 (2017). The State has filed a motion to dismiss the pending appeal. Because there is no merit to Reynolds' appeal, I would dismiss the appeal and find the State's motion moot.
This court has repeatedly and unanimously held that an appeal from an order for postconviction relief will not be permitted to go forward when it is clear the appellant cannot prevail. See, e.g. , Brown v. State ,
In his petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, Reynolds alleged counsel was ineffective as follows: 1) failing to preserve the specific argument that the State had not proven he acted with purpose as to the aggravated assault; 2) failing to object to photographs of the victims; 3) failing to object to the victim's testimony about her injuries; 4) failing to interview a witness that would have shown a positive light on defendant; 5) that statements by the prosecutor at trial were prejudicial and the curative instruction was insufficient; 6) failing to raise an accomplice-liability argument; and 7) failing to object to the kidnapping charge level on the verdict form because the defendant left the victim alive and in a safe place.
The trial court conducted a hearing and ruled that the defendant's contentions either were meritless, unproven, not grounds for relief, or trial strategy as explained through his counsel's testimony. Reynolds appeals. On appeal, he abandons a majority of his arguments. Reynolds instead focuses primarily on the lack of sufficient evidence for his conviction, the location of the victim, and the prosecutor's conduct (to which the defense counsel objected and obtained a curative instruction). The circuit court is correct that these are not grounds for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
In an appeal from a denial of postconviction relief, this court considers whether, based on the totality of the evidence, the circuit court clearly erred in holding counsel's performance was not effective. Mister v. State ,
For these reasons, I dissent.
Kemp, C.J., and Womack, J., join in this dissent.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Edward Joseph REYNOLDS v. STATE of Arkansas
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published