Huey C. White v. State of Arkansas

2024 Ark. 79

• Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas
• Decided: May 9, 2024
• Status: Published

Opinion

Cite as 2024 Ark. 79 SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS No. CR-23-747

Opinion Delivered: May 9, 2024 HUEY C. WHITE APPELLANT PRO SE APPEAL FROM THE LAFAYETTE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT; MOTION TO FILE V. BELATED REPLY BRIEF [NO. 37CR-87-45] STATE OF ARKANSAS APPELLEE HONORABLE L. WREN AUTREY, JUDGE

AFFIRMED; MOTION MOOT.

RHONDA K. WOOD, Associate Justice

Huey C. White appeals from the circuit court’s denial of his pro se petition to correct

an illegal sentence. In 1988, a jury convicted White of capital murder for the death of

Delores Cockerham, who was beaten during a robbery and died as a result. White alleged

that his sentence is illegal because he was convicted of capital murder but was not separately

convicted of the underlying felony of aggravated robbery. The circuit court denied and

dismissed his petition. We affirm because, at the time of White’s crime and conviction,

Arkansas law merged the underlying felony with the capital-murder conviction.

In 1987, Huey White and James Lee Thomas robbed a grocery store in Stamps,

Arkansas. During the robbery, both men attacked the clerks. One survived, but Delores

Cockerham died from a severe brain injury. See White v. State, 298 Ark. 55, 764 S.W.2d

613 (1989). Despite the facts showing that White had attacked the surviving clerk, he was convicted of capital murder as the accomplice to Cockerham’s murder and sentenced to life

imprisonment without parole. Id. We affirmed. Id.

Now White has filed a petition under Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-90-

111(a) (Repl. 2016) claiming his sentence is illegal. The circuit court denied his petition.

This court will reverse a circuit court’s decision to deny relief under section 16-90-111 if

that decision was clearly erroneous. See Harmon v. State, 2023 Ark. 120, 673 S.W.3d 797.

A finding is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the appellate

court, after reviewing the entire evidence, has a definite and firm conviction that there has

been a mistake. Id. A circuit court has authority to correct an illegal sentence at any time.

See section 16-90-111(a); see also Redus v. State, 2019 Ark. 44, 566 S.W.3d 469. A sentence

is illegal on its face when it is beyond the circuit court’s authority to impose it. Id.

Sentencing is entirely a matter of statute in Arkansas. Id. The petitioner shoulders the burden

of demonstrating that his or her sentence was illegal. Id.

Presently, White argues that his capital-murder sentence is illegal because he was not

convicted of the underlying felony of aggravated robbery. He contends that his judgment

and conviction order has only the conviction for capital murder and does not contain an

underlying felony conviction. But White committed these crimes in June 1987. At that

time, Arkansas law prohibited a defendant from the simultaneous conviction of capital

murder and its underlying felony. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-105(1) (Repl. 1977), recodified at

Ark. Code Ann. § 5-1-110(a) (1987) (prohibiting entry of a judgment on capital felony

murder and the underlying specified felony); see also Richie v. State, 298 Ark. 358, 361, 767

S.W.2d 522, 524 (1989). The law deemed the underlying felony “merged” with the capital-

2 murder conviction. Id. Thus, the face of White’s judgment and conviction order is not

illegal and follows the statutory law in effect at that time.

White failed to show that his sentence of life imprisonment for capital murder is

facially illegal, and no other evidence showed that the court lacked jurisdiction to conduct

his trial and convict him. As we find the circuit court was not clearly erroneous when it

denied and dismissed White’s petition to correct an illegal sentence, we affirm. His motion

to file a belated reply brief is moot.

WEBB, J., concurs.

Huey C. White, pro se appellant.

Tim Griffin, Att’y Gen.; by: Michael Zangari, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.