Miner v. State

28 S.W.3d 280, 342 Ark. 283, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 483
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 12, 2000
DocketCR 00-564
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 28 S.W.3d 280 (Miner 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
Miner v. State, 28 S.W.3d 280, 342 Ark. 283, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 483 (Ark. 2000).

Opinion

W.h. ""Arnold, Chief Justice.

Appellant, Teresa Lynn Miner, brings the instant appeal challenging the Sebastian County Circuit Court’s order revoking her probation and sentencing her to five years’ imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction with an additional five years’ suspended sentence. Miner initially appealed the decision to the Arkansas Court of Appeals and argued that the trial court erred in granting the State’s petition because there was insufficient evidence that she had violated the terms and conditions of her suspended sentence. In an opinion dated April 26, 2000, the Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court’s order. See Miner v State, 70 Ark. App. 142, 15 S.W.3d 356 (2000). Pursuant to Ark. R. Sup. Ct. l-2(e) and 2-4 (2000), we granted appellant’s petition for review. The State contends that Miner’s arguments are procedurally barred by Ark. R. Crim. P. 33.1. We agree, and we affirm the trial court’s order revoking Miner’s probation.

Background

On March 3, 1993, Miner pled guilty to felony overdraft and received a five-year suspended sentence with two years’ probation. Additionally, she was ordered to make restitution in the amount of $2,243.94 and to pay fines and costs of $639.75. Approximately two years later, on March 16, 1995, Miner again pled guilty to felony overdraft, received a five-year suspended sentence and two years’ probation, and was ordered to pay $2,638.58 in restitution and $1,147.75 in fines and costs. After Miner failed to make several payments, including monthly probation fees and restitution payments, and after she committed another offense of felony overdraft, the State petitioned to revoke her 1993 and 1995 suspended sentences. Following an August 11, 1999 hearing, the trial court found that Miner had violated the terms and conditions of her probation and granted the State’s petition to revoke. She was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction with an additional five years’ suspended sentence.

Following the appellate court’s affirmance, we granted Miner’s petition for review. 1 When we grant a petition to review a case decided by the Court of Appeals, we review it as if it was filed originally in this court. See Williams v. State, 328 Ark. 487, 944 S.W.2d 822 (1997) (citing Allen v. State, 326 Ark. 541, 932 S.W.2d 764 (1996)). We first consider whether Rule 33.1 applies in a revocation proceeding and procedurally bars Miner’s appeal.

Rule 33. i

Appellant’s first point on appeal queries whether Ark. R. Crim. P. 33.1 applies in the context of a revocation proceeding. The relevant portions of Rule 33.1 provide:

(a) In a jury trial, if a motion for directed verdict is to be made, it shall be made at the close of the evidence offered the prosecution and at the close of all of the evidence. A motion for directed verdict shall state the specific grounds therefor.
(b) In a nonjury trial, if a motion for dismissal is to be made, it shall be made at the close of all of the evidence. The motion for dismissal shall state the specific grounds therefor. If the defendant moved for dismissal at the conclusion of the prosecution’s evidence, then the motion must be renewed at the close of all of the evidence.
(c) The failure of a defendant to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence at the times and in the manner required in subsections (a) and (b) above will constitute a waiver of any question pertaining to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict or judgment. . . .

(Emphasis added.)

Miner’s argument that Rule 33.1 does not apply to revocation proceedings amounts to a discussion of the ways that trials differ from revocation hearings. For example, defendants in a revocation proceeding are not entitled to the “full panoply of rights that attend a criminal prosecution.” Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471 (1972). Certain rules of evidence, including the hearsay rule, do not apply strictly to a revocation hearing as they would in a trial. Lockett v. State, 271 Ark. 860, 611 S.W.2d 500 (1981). Further, the burden of proof varies. In a criminal trial, the State must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, but the burden of proof in a revocation proceeding is “by a preponderance of the evidence.” Lemons v. State, 310 Ark. 381, 836 S.W.2d 861 (1992). Finally, speedy-trial rules vary between the two proceedings. Dority v. State, 329 Ark. 631, 951 S.W.2d 559 (1997). In light of these distinctions and the language of Rule 33.1, Miner claims that the rule is limited on its face to “trials.” Miner urges us to construe the rule by giving the words their plain meanings and conclude that it cannot apply to revocation hearings. See Boyd v. State, 313 Ark. 171, 853 S.W.2d 263 (1993).

In response, the State argues that Miner is procedurally barred from challenging the sufficiency of the evidence because she failed to move for a directed verdict at either the close of the State’s case or at the close of all evidence as required by Rule 33.1. The State reasons that the rule is clearly applicable because revocation proceedings are “criminal cases” and the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure “govern the proceedings in all criminal cases in the Supreme Court and in circuit courts of the State of Arkansas.” Ark. R. Crim. P. 1.2 (2000). Moreover, Ark. R. Crim. P. 1.7 (2000) proclaims that the Rules of Criminal Procedure “shall apply to all criminal proceedings commenced upon or after the effective date hereof, and all appeals and other post-conviction proceedings relating thereto.”

Further, the State explains that the rule should apply because a judge acts as fact-finder in a revocation hearing just as he would in a nonjury trial; therefore, the two proceedings are equivalent for purposes of Rule 33.1. Notably, in Strickland v. State, 322 Ark. 312, 909 S.W.2d 318 (1995), we considered this argument and reached a different conclusion. In fact, we determined that directed-verdict motions were superfluous when there is a trial without a jury. Strickland, 322 Ark. at 317, 909 S.W.2d at 320-21. We explained that the judge would only be directing his own verdict, and the entire purpose of a bench trial is to have the judge, rather than a jury, ascertain the sufficiency of the evidence to convict. Id. Of course, at the time of our decision in Strickland, the procedural rule did not require a defendant to move for dismissal in nonjury-trial cases. Given that fact, we reasoned that where a judge is sitting as the trier of fact and would be sufficiently aware of the evidence and the elements of the crime, no such motion would be necessary. Id., 322 Ark. at 318, 909 S.W.2d 321.

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Bluebook (online)
28 S.W.3d 280, 342 Ark. 283, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miner-v-state-ark-2000.