Goins v. State

558 S.W.3d 872
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 1, 2018
DocketNo. CR-94-678
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 558 S.W.3d 872 (Goins v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goins v. State, 558 S.W.3d 872 (Ark. 2018).

Opinion

JOHN DAN KEMP, Chief Justice

Petitioner Jesse Goins brings this petition to reinvest jurisdiction in the trial court so that he may file a petition for writ of error coram nobis in his criminal case and a motion for appointment of counsel. In the petition, Goins contends that the trial court and the State violated *874Brady v. Maryland , 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), by failing to disclose that a juror was biased.1 As Goins's claim does not establish a ground for the writ, the petition is denied. The denial of the petition renders the motion for appointment of counsel moot.

I. Nature of the Writ

The petition for leave to proceed in the trial court is necessary because the trial court can entertain a petition for writ of error coram nobis after a judgment has been affirmed on appeal only after we grant permission. Newman v. State , 2009 Ark. 539, 354 S.W.3d 61. A writ of error coram nobis is an extraordinarily rare remedy. State v. Larimore , 341 Ark. 397, 17 S.W.3d 87 (2000). Coram nobis proceedings are attended by a strong presumption that the judgment of conviction is valid. Green v. State , 2016 Ark. 386, 502 S.W.3d 524. The function of the writ is to secure relief from a judgment rendered while there existed some fact that would have prevented its rendition if it had been known to the trial court and which, through no negligence or fault of the defendant, was not brought forward before rendition of the judgment. Newman , 2009 Ark. 539, 354 S.W.3d 61. The petitioner has the burden of demonstrating a fundamental error of fact extrinsic to the record. Roberts v. State , 2013 Ark. 56, 425 S.W.3d 771.

II. Grounds for the Writ

The writ is allowed only under compelling circumstances to achieve justice and to address errors of the most fundamental nature. Id. A writ of error coram nobis is available for addressing certain errors that are found in one of four categories: (1) insanity at the time of trial, (2) a coerced guilty plea, (3) material evidence withheld by the prosecutor, or (4) a third-party confession to the crime during the time between conviction and appeal. Howard v. State , 2012 Ark. 177, 403 S.W.3d 38.

III. Background

In 1994, Goins and his codefendant Arthur Davis were found guilty by a jury of the aggravated robbery of a convenience store, and both were sentenced to terms of life imprisonment. We affirmed. Goins v. State , 318 Ark. 689, 890 S.W.2d 602 (1995). The evidence adduced at trial established that two men, Arthur Davis and Lamar Davis, entered the store, threatened the manager of the store with a large lock-blade knife--slightly cutting her throat--and threatened her with a handgun. The two men took a bank bag containing cash from the register. They were attempting to bind the manager with duct tape when a car driven by Barry Cooper and with his father, William Cooper, as a passenger, drove up to the gas pumps outside. Arthur Davis and Lamar Davis immediately ran from the store to an old blue car waiting in the parking lot with Goins in the driver's seat. The manager took down the license-plate number of the car as it drove away and asked Barry Cooper to call the police. Goins, Arthur Davis, and Lamar Davis were later apprehended in the car, which contained a large lock-blade knife, a handgun, and the bank bag taken from the store. While the manager was not able to identify Goins at trial as being the driver of the car, she testified that he had been in the store once before and that she remembered his face. Barry Cooper testified that he did not see the face of the driver. On *875direct appeal, this court held that the State sufficiently proved Goins's presence as the driver of the car on the day of the robbery.

IV. Claim of a Brady Violation

To establish a Brady violation, the petitioner must satisfy three elements: (1) the evidence at issue must be favorable to the accused, either because it is exculpatory or because it is impeaching; (2) that evidence must have been suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently; (3) prejudice must have ensued. Howard , 2012 Ark. 177, 403 S.W.3d 38. The mere fact that a petitioner alleges a Brady violation is not sufficient to provide a basis for error coram nobis relief. Wallace v. State , 2018 Ark. 164, 545 S.W.3d 767 ; see also Penn v. State , 282 Ark. 571,

Related

Shequitqa L. Joiner v. State of Arkansas
2019 Ark. 279 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2019)
Makkali v. State
2019 Ark. 17 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2019)

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Bluebook (online)
558 S.W.3d 872, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goins-v-state-ark-2018.