Spivey v. State

773 S.W.2d 446, 299 Ark. 412, 1989 Ark. LEXIS 341
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJuly 3, 1989
DocketCR 89-26
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 773 S.W.2d 446 (Spivey 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
Spivey v. State, 773 S.W.2d 446, 299 Ark. 412, 1989 Ark. LEXIS 341 (Ark. 1989).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

The petitioner Julius Edward Spivey was convicted of two counts of theft of property and sentenced as a habitual offender to twenty-five years imprisonment on each count. He then petitioned the trial court for reduction of sentence under Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-2314 (Supp. 1985), now codified at Ark. Code Ann. § 16-90-111 (Supp. 1987). The trial court denied the petition, and the Court of Appeals affirmed both the original conviction and the order denying the petition. Spivey v. State, 25 Ark. App. 269, 757 S.W.2d 186 (1988). He now seeks post-conviction relief pursuant to Criminal Procedure Rule 37.

The petitioner first argues that he is entitled to have the convictions dismissed because his attorney did not file a motion to have the charges dismissed for failure to afford him a speedy trial. We have held that the failure of an attorney to raise a meritorious claim that the defendant was denied a speedy trial constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel. Hall v. State, 281 Ark. 282, 663 S.W.2d 926 (1984).

Petitioner was charged by felony information on October 15,1985,butnot tried until April29,1987. Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure 28.1(c) provides:

Any defendant charged with an offense in circuit court and held to bail, or otherwise lawfully set at liberty, including release from incarceration pursuant to subsection (a) hereof, shall be entitled to have the charge dismissed with an absolute bar to prosecution if not brought to trial within eighteen (18) months from the time provided in Rule 28.2, excluding only such periods of necessary delay as are authorized in Rule 28.3.

The date the charge was filed begins the time period for a speedy trial. Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure 28.2(a); Allen v. State, 294 Ark. 209, 742 S.W.2d 886 (1988). The petitioner here was not tried until fifteen days after the eighteen-month period expired. Therfore, he was denied a speedy trial, unless there was some excludable period of time under Criminal Procedure Rule 28.3(a).

The issue of whether petitioner was afforded a speedy trial was not raised at trial or in the petition to reduce sentence filed after trial, and the record is silent as to whether the delay was legally justified. Contained in the record is a fugitive warrant issued on October 15, 1985, the day the charges were filed, and a document showing that the warrant was not served until December 2, 1986, when petitioner was arrested. It is likely that petitioner’s fugitive status was the reason for the delay, which would constitute an excludable period under Rule 28.3(a), but the petitioner asserts that he was incarcerated in November of 1986 and at that time he asked the prosecutor to schedule the trial. The state may have had good reason to delay bringing petitioner to trial, but the failure of the record to specifically set out those reasons makes it necessary to grant petitioner permission to apply to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing limited to the issue of whether counsel could have made a successful motion to dismiss the charges for failure to hold trial within the time limits set by Rule 28.

Petitioner also raises additional claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, none of which is supported by facts from which is can be concluded that the representation of counsel fell below the standard set by the United States Supreme Court and this court for conduct by counsel in a criminal case. To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the petitioner must show first that counsel’s performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the petitioner by the sixth amendment. Second, the petitioner must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense, which requires showing that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the petitioner of a fair trial. Unless a petitioner makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable. A court must indulge in a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance. The petitioner must show there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, the factfinder would have had a reasonable doubt respecting guilt, i.e., the decision reached would have been different absent the errors. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial. In making a determination on a claim of ineffectiveness, the totality of the evidence before the judge or jury must be considered. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).

Petitioner alleges that his attorney was remiss in not arranging to have him arraigned without unnecessary delay after arrest. Even if petitioner was not taken before a judicial officer in accordance with Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 8.1, however, the failure to comply with the rule does not dictate a dismissal of the charges, since a remedy for violation of Rule 8.1 is suppression of evidence obtained. Smith v. State, 296 Ark. 451, 757 S.W.2d 554 (1988). Petitioner does not allege that any evidence was obtained as a result of the failure to comply with Rule 8.1.

Petitioner next contends that his attorney failed to have an accurate record of the trial court proceedings prepared for the purposes of appeal. He states that objections were left out and that names and testimony appear in the wrong places. He concedes that he filed a pro se motion in the Court of Appeals which covered essentially the same ground contained in the allegation before us. He also notes that his trial attorney filed a similar motion in the trial court, the disposition of which is unclear. The Court of Appeals denied the pro se motion to supplement, and it appears that petitioner may be asking this court to countermand the Court of Appeals’ decision to deny the pro se motion to supplement; if so, Rule 37 does not provide a means to relitigate a matter decided on appeal. Swindler v. State, 272 Ark. 340, 617 S.W.2d 1 (1981). Even if the allegation were considered a simple allegation of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, petitioner would still be entitled to no relief under Rule 37 because he has failed entirely to demonstrate that he was prejudiced by any particular omission or error in the record. A claim that prejudice was suffered without any factual explanation about what form the prejudice took or how serious it was is not enough to prove ineffective assistance of counsel. Conclusory allegations which are not supported by a showing of actual prejudice so serious as to deprive the petitioner of a fair trial or a fair appellate proceeding do not warrant an evidentiary hearing. Neff v. State, 287 Ark. 88, 696 S.W.2d 736 (1985).

Petitioner makes the vague allegation that counsel was ineffective for failing to dispose of some charges pending against him in Oklahoma.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mancia v. State
2015 Ark. 115 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2015)
Henington v. State
2012 Ark. 181 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2012)
Nance v. State
4 S.W.3d 501 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1999)
Britt v. State
974 S.W.2d 436 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1998)
Monts v. State
851 S.W.2d 432 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1993)
Dixon v. State
839 S.W.2d 173 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
773 S.W.2d 446, 299 Ark. 412, 1989 Ark. LEXIS 341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spivey-v-state-ark-1989.