State v. Hulum

78 S.W.3d 111, 349 Ark. 400, 2002 Ark. LEXIS 379
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 20, 2002
DocketCR 01-1271
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 78 S.W.3d 111 (State v. Hulum) 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
State v. Hulum, 78 S.W.3d 111, 349 Ark. 400, 2002 Ark. LEXIS 379 (Ark. 2002).

Opinions

Ray Thornton, Justice.

This is a State's appeal from the conviction of appellee, Eugene Hulum, of manslaughter for the death of his nineteen-month-old son, Marquis Hulum. Appellee does not appeal from that conviction. The State acknowledges that the jury’s manslaughter verdict operates as an acquittal for double-jeopardy purposes on the charges of capital murder and first-degree murder on which the jury was also instructed, making retrial of appellee on those charges impermissible. See e.g., Price v. Georgia, 398 U.S. 323, 329 (1970). Based on these double-jeopardy principles, the State does not request that we reverse or remand this case, but merely requests that we declare error on two points.

Before reaching the merits of the State’s appeal, we must consider whether this matter is properly before this court. Rule 3 of the Appellate Rules of Procedure&emdash;Criminal allows the State to • pursue a criminal appeal in certain cases. The rule provides:

If the attorney general, on inspecting the trial record, is satisfied that error has been committed to the prejudice of the state, and that the correct and uniform administration of the criminal law requires review by the Supreme Court, he may take the appeal by filing the transcript of the trial record with the clerk of the Supreme Court within sixty (60) days after the filing of the notice of appeal.

Ark. R. App. P. — Crim. 3(c).

In State v. Ashley, 347 Ark. 523, 66 S.W.3d 563 (2002), we outlined the requirements for a State’s appeal. We explained:

In criminal cases, we accept appeals by the State in limited circumstances. State v. McCormack, 343 Ark. 285, 34 S.W.3d 735 (2000). This court has held our review of a State appeal is not limited to cases that would establish precedent. State v. Gray, 330 Ark. 364, 955 S.W.2d 502 (1997). Moreover, there is a significant and inherent difference between appeals brought by criminal defendants and those brought on behalf of the State. The former is a matter of right, whereas the latter is not derived from the Constitution, nor is it a matter of right, but is granted pursuant to Rule 3. State v. Guthrie, 341 Ark. 624, 19 S.W. 3d 10 (2000); State v. McCormack; supra. We accept appeals by the State when our holding would be important to the correct and uniform administration of the criminal law. Rule 3(c). As a matter of practice, this court has only taken appeals which are narrow in scope and involve the interpretation of law. State v. Banks, 322 Ark. 344, 909 S.W.2d 634 (1995). Where an appeal does not present an issue of interpretation of the criminal rules with widespread ramifications, this court has held that such an appeal does not involve the correct and uniform administration of the law. State v. Harris, 315 Ark. 595, 868 S.W.2d 488 (1994).
Appeals are not allowed merely to demonstrate the fact that the trial court erred. State v. Stephenson, 330 Ark. 594, 955 S.W.2d 518 (1997); State v. Spear and Boyce, 123 Ark. 449, 185 S.W. 788 (1916). Thus, where the resolution of the issue on appeal turns on the facts unique to the case, the appeal is not one requiring interpretation of our criminal rules with widespread ramification, and the matter is not appealable by the State. State v. Guthrie, supra; State v. Howard, 341 Ark. 640, 19 S.W.3d 4 (2000); State v. Gray, 330 Ark. 364, 955 S.W.2d 502 (1997); State v. Edwards, 310 Ark. 516, 838 S.W.2d 356 (1992) (“Here, the State questions the trial court’s application of our rule to the facts at hand and not its interpretation, so the appeal must be dismissed.”). This court will not even accept mixed questions of law and fact on appeal by the State. State v. Gray, supra; State v. Edwards, supra; State v. Hart, 329 Ark. 582, 952 S.W.2d 138 (1997) (“Because the issue presented in this appeal involves a mixed question of law and fact, an interpretation of our rules with widespread ramifications is simply not at issue here.”). Likewise, where an appeal raises the issue of application, not interpretation, of a statutory provision, it does not involve the correct and uniform administration of the criminal law and is not appealable by the State. State v. Jones, 321 Ark. 451, 903 S.W.2d 170 (1995); State v. Mazur, 312 Ark. 121, 847 S.W.2d 715 (1993).

Ashley, supra.

With these legal principles in mind, we must determine whether the issues raised by the State involve matters that are important to the correct and uniform administration of criminal law. The State has raised two issues for our review. First, the State requests that we declare that the trial court erred when it gave- the jury the extreme-emotional-disturbance manslaughter instruction. We conclude that the first assignment of error raises a mixed question of fact and law concerning an alleged misapplication of a statute to the facts surrounding a particular case, as more fully developed below.

Second, the State requests that we declare that the trial court erred when it applied the provisions of Act 248 of 2001 to appellee’s trial before that Act became effective.1 This assignment of error relates to an alleged error made by the trial court in treating a newly passed statute as becoming effective before it becomes effective. Because the statute has now become effective, and because the subject of the statute relates to the effect of an acquittal on the grounds of a mental disease or defect, on which grounds appellee was not acquitted, we conclude that the second assignment of error is now moot, and any decision on that matter would be advisory. Because the question raised by the State does not present an issue with widespread ramifications, and is arguably raised simply to demonstrate the fact that the trial court erred, we decline to address the matter. See Ashley, supra.

With respect to the allegation that the trial court erred in giving a manslaughter instruction relating to the death of Marquis Hulum, we first consider under what circumstances the State may appeal from the giving of a particular jury instruction. In this case, the State argues that the extreme-emotional-disturbance manslaughter instruction should not have been given. The State does not argue that this manslaughter instruction does not relate to a lesser-included offense, but rather asserts that the trial court erred in his interpretation of the applicable statute.

We considered the issue of whether the State may challenge the giving or not giving of a particular jury instruction in State v. McCormick, 343 Ark.

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Bluebook (online)
78 S.W.3d 111, 349 Ark. 400, 2002 Ark. LEXIS 379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hulum-ark-2002.