Ka Makkali v. State

2017 Ark. 46, 510 S.W.3d 240, 2017 Ark. LEXIS 37
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 16, 2017
DocketCV-16-673
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2017 Ark. 46 (Ka Makkali 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
Ka Makkali v. State, 2017 Ark. 46, 510 S.W.3d 240, 2017 Ark. LEXIS 37 (Ark. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM

| Appellant, Malik (Saba) Ka Makkali, also known as Gary Cloird, is incarcerated pursuant to a 1992 conviction for rape and theft of a van for which he was sentenced to thirty-five years’ imprisonment for rape and five years’ imprisonment and a $1000 fine for theft. The sentences were ordered to run consecutively. This court affirmed the convictions and sentences. Cloird v. State, 314 Ark. 296, 862 S.W.2d 211 (1993). In 2002, Cloird’s petition to reinvest jurisdiction in the Jefferson County Circuit Court to consider a petition for writ of error coram nobis was granted by this court. Cloird v. State, 349 Ark. 33, 76 S.W.3d 813 (2002). The coram-nobis petition had alleged that DNA evidence taken from a vaginal swab of the victim had not been turned over to defense counsel in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). Following a full hearing on the coram-nobis petition, the trial court found that the DNA evidence obtained from the vaginal swab would 12not have been exculpatory because the victim had testified that Makkali had orally raped her. We affirmed. Cloird v. State, 357 Ark. 446, 448-49, 182 S.W.3d 477, 478 (2004).

On July 28, 2015, Makkali filed in the trial court a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and a motion for the performance of DNA testing under Act 1780 of 2001 wherein he sought testing of the vaginal swab. The trial court dismissed the petition without prejudice because Makkali was not incarcerated in Jefferson County and the trial court found that it did not have jurisdiction to act on the habeas petition. We reversed and remanded, finding that jurisdiction of a habeas petition filed under Act 1780, codified at Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-112-201 to -208 (Repl. 2006), was properly brought in the Jefferson County Circuit Court where Makkali had been convicted. Makkali v. Kelly, 2016 Ark. 137, 2016 WL 1268525 (per curiam).

After the matter was remanded, Makka-li filed in the trial court on April 28, 2016, a motion to amend his original habeas petition to include, in addition to his request for DNA tests of the vaginal swab, a request for DNA testing of the following items: a shotgun; two screw drivers; a handgun; a toilet roll; and a bed sheet. In this motion, Makkali also sought fingerprint testing in connection with his conviction for stealing the van and for “fact testing” of phone bills in connection with stolen phone cards for which he had been convicted in a separate case. 1 Makkali alleged that further tests of these phone bills would | «demonstrate that he had used the card to make phone calls forty miles away from the scene at the time the rape was committed.

On July 7, 2016, the trial court denied Makkali’s original petition for a writ of habeas corpus, as well as the motion to amend the habeas petition. The trial court concluded that the request for testing was untimely and was otherwise without merit as the DNA tests and fingerprint tests sought by Makkali would not exonerate him. 2 Makkali filed a timely notice of appeal from the order on July 22, 2016.

Now pending before this court is Makkali’s motion for belated appeal and rule on clerk asking for leave to file a belated brief, which would constitute a motion to file a belated brief, as the appeal and record were both timely filed. We need not consider the request to file a belated brief because there is clearly no merit to the appeal. An appeal from an order that denied a petition for postconviction relief will not be permitted to go forward where it is clear that the appellant could not prevail. Crawford, v. Cashion, 2010 Ark. 124, at 2, 361 S.W.3d 268, 270 (per curiam). Because a review of the ha-beas petition, the motion to amend, and the pertinent records related to Makkali’s convictions conclusively demonstrate that Makkali could not prevail, we dismiss the appeal, and the motion seeking to file a belated brief is therefore moot.

Act 1780 of 2001, as amended by Act 2250 of 2005, provides that a writ of habe-as corpus can issue based on new scientific evidence proving a person actually innocent óf the Loffense for which he was convicted. Pankau v. State, 2013 Ark. 162, 5-6, 2013 WL 1694909. We have held that DNA testing of evidence is authorized under this statute if testing or retesting can provide materially relevant evidence that will significantly advance the defendant’s claim of innocence in light of all the evidence presented to the jury. King v. State, 2013 Ark. 133, at 4-5, 2013 WL 1279079 (per curiam). In addition, under section 16-112-202, the petition must identify specific evidence for testing that was secured as a result of petitioner’s conviction; the evidence must have been maintained subject to a chain of custody; and the petitioner must identify a theory of defense based on the new evidence that the requested testing would provide, and which would establish petitioner’s actual innocence. Clemons v. State, 2014 Ark. 454, at 5, 446 S.W.3d 619, 622. Furthermore, it must be shown that the proposed testing of the specific evidence would raise a reasonable probability that the petitioner did not commit the offense. Pankau, 2013 Ark. 162 at 5-6, 2013 WL 1694909; Ark. Code Ann. § 16-112-202(8). Finally, the amendments under Act 2250 created a number of other predicate requirements that must be met before a court can order testing under the Act. Hill v. State, 2016 Ark. 258, 3-4, 493 S.W.3d 754, 756 (per curiam). One of these predicate requirements applies to those petitioners who file a motion for testing more than thirty-six months after the entry of the judgment of conviction. Id. (citing Ark. Code Ann. § 16-112-202(10)(B)).

Makkali filed his petition for habe-as relief in 2015, more than twenty years after the judgment had been entered, and more than ten years after Act 1780 was first enacted. Therefore, a rebuttable presumption arose that the petition was untimely. Under section 16-112-202(10)(B), Makkali was therefore required to rebut this presumption by showing the following: (1) that the petitioner was or is incompetent, and the incompetence | ^substantially contributed to the delay; (2) that the evidence to be tested is newly discovered; (3) that the motion is not based solely upon the petitioner’s own assertion of innocence, and a denial of the motion would result in a manifest injustice; (4) that a new method of technology exists that is substantially more probative than was the testing available at the time of the conviction; or (5) other good cause. Hill, 2016 Ark. 258, at 3-4, 493 S.W.3d at 756 (citing Ark. Code Ann. § 16-112-202(10)(B)). Makkali’s petition contained nothing more than his own assertion of innocence, and his conclusory allegation of incompetence is belied by his history of litigation. 3 Likewise, there is no showing that newly discovered evidence, manifest injustice, new testing methods, or good cause prevented Makkali from filing his petition within the thirty-six-month time limitation. Douthitt v. State, 366 Ark. 579, 581, 237 S.W.3d 76, 78 (2006) (per curiam).

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Bluebook (online)
2017 Ark. 46, 510 S.W.3d 240, 2017 Ark. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ka-makkali-v-state-ark-2017.