Conley v. State

590 S.W.2d 66, 267 Ark. 713, 1979 Ark. App. LEXIS 455
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 7, 1979
DocketCA CR 79-45
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 590 S.W.2d 66 (Conley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conley v. State, 590 S.W.2d 66, 267 Ark. 713, 1979 Ark. App. LEXIS 455 (Ark. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinions

James H. Pilkinton, Judge.

Appellant was charged with burglary and rape in violation of Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-2002 and 41-1803 respectively. He was found guilty by a jury on both charges. Punishment was fixed at three years imprisonment for burglary and twenty years for rape. The sentences were directed to be consecutive. Appellant brings this appeal from the judgment and sentence imposed by the Pulaski County Circuit Court.

I.

Appellant made a statement to police after his arrest. A pretrial hearing was held and the trial court granted appellant’s motion to suppress the statement on the grounds that (1) the state failed to have present at the hearing all of the witnesses who were present at the time the statement was made, and (2) that the appellant had requested his attorney be present at the time of the statement, and his attorney was not there. In accordance with the trial court’s ruling, the prosecution was not permitted to introduce the statement as a part of its evidence in chief. Later during the trial when the defendant took the stand to testify in his own defense, and denied making the statement to police, another in-chambers hearing was conducted. The trial court then held that the state would be allowed to introduce evidence of the statement in question for the limited purpose of impeaching the credibility of the appellant. This was done, and appellant made no objection. However, appellant now urges that the trial court erred in failing to give a specific jury instruction as to the limited purpose for which the statement could be considered.

The record reflects that discussions concerning the nature and content of the jury instructions, occurred at several intervals during the trial. The first such discussion took place after the state had rested, and before the defense had begun to put on its case. At that time, all of the instructions which had been submitted by both sides were reviewed, and the trial court told the attorneys which ones would be given. The only instruction with regard to credibility of witnesses which had been submitted at that time was adopted by the judge as Court’s Instruction No. 5, which was the usual one on credibility of the witnesses, and of the weight that should be given to their testimony. Both sides approved this instruction. Later at the in-chambers hearing held during the presentation of the defense’s case when the judge decided to allow the state to use the appellant’s prior statement for the purpose of attacking his credibility, the following discussion occurred:

MR. ACHOR: That’s right. He says he didn’t tell the policeman that. He says he told the policeman the same thing he told here. Now, you have already ruled that it’s inadmissible as an involuntary statement.
THE COURT: As to the merits of the statement but not as to his credibility.
MR. ACHOR: I think with this we will need another instruction. We might as well get it straight right now.— that this was not for the purpose of proving the truth of this statement.

That is all that was said by counsel for appellant concerning the limited instruction. Nor was there ever any further attempt by appellant, either at the time the state offered the evidence in question, or at the time when the instructions were ready to the jury, to have a limiting instruction given. At the close of the case for the defense, and after both sides had rested, the record reveals the following:

THE COURT: (in chambers) Are you ready to charge this jury and read instructions to them?
MR. HALL: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Anything else, gentlemen?
MR. ACHOR: No, sir.

Immediately later in the courtroom, the following occurred:

THE COURT: Both sides rest?
MR. HALL: (for state) Yes, sir.
MR. PATTERSON: (for defense) Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Are you ready for me to instruct the jury?
MR. PATTERSON: Yes, your Honor:
MR. HALL: Yes, sir.

Appellant contends that the statement of defense counsel, quoted above, to the effect that I think we will need another instruction, etc., constituted an adequate offer of a limiting instruction. We do not agree. Rule XIII of the Uniform Rules for Circuit and Chancery Courts (251 Ark. 1117) provides:

No party may assign as error the giving or the failure to give an instruction to a jury unless he objects thereto before or at the time the instruction is given, stating distinctly the matter to which he objects and the grounds of his objection.

Suffice to say that appellant made no objection to the instructions as given by the court, nor did he offer a proper limiting instruction. The purpose of requiring objections is to give the trial court an opportunity to correct any error or omission on its part. Griffin v. State, 248 Ark. 1223 at 1232, 455 S.W. 2d 882 (1970). Clearly no limiting instruction was ever submitted to the trial court by appellant; thus, under the circumstances here, there was no. error in the trial court’s failure to give such an instruction. Perry v. State, 255 Ark. 378, at 384, 500 S.W. 2d 387.

II.

It is next contended the trial court should have granted appellant’s motion for a mistrial when the prosecuting attorney allegedly allowed the ‘ ‘rap sheet’ ’ on the defendant to be seen by the jury. The record reveals that the prosecutor asked the defendant whether the one robbery conviction he had testified to was his only felony conviction and whether he had been to prison only one time. At that point, according to the record, the state’s attorney approached the defense table, apparently to hand appellant’s counsel a sheet of paper that was only later identified (after the jury had been removed), as a “rap sheet.”

If any particular attention was called to this piece of paper, it was the result of the action of defense counsel. As the prosecutor approached‘the defense table to hand the public defender a copy of the sheet, the following occurred:

MR. ACHOR: (Counsel for appellant) I don’t want to see that. I see that certified copy you got there. I see you got something there with a seal on it.
THE COURT: Gentlemen, if you are going to discuss something —
MR. ACHOR: Judge, may we approach the bench?

At this point counsel for both sides approached the bench, and conferred with the court out of the hearing of the jury, as follows:

MR. ACHOR: I would like to move for a mistrial, him flashing that before the jury.

The court had the jury taken out of the courtroom, and the matter was further discussed. The court then made the following statement:

All right, gentlemen, the record is complete at this time.

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Related

Hardin v. State
872 S.W.2d 861 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1994)
Vowell v. State
628 S.W.2d 599 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
590 S.W.2d 66, 267 Ark. 713, 1979 Ark. App. LEXIS 455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conley-v-state-arkctapp-1979.