Title: Gary Stahl v. State of Arkansas

State: arkansas

Issuer: Arkansas Supreme Court

Document:

Gary STAHL v. STATE of Arkansas

CR 97-287                                          ___ S.W.2d ___

                    Supreme Court of Arkansas
                 Opinion delivered April 7, 1997


Appeal & error -- appellate court decides whether notice of appeal is proper -
     - order striking notice of appeal vacated. -- Where the trial court
     issued an order striking petitioner's notice of appeal because
     petitioner had not signed it, the supreme court treated the
     petition for writ of prohibition as one for writ of certiorari
     and granted it, noting that it is within the province of the
     supreme court to dismiss appeals and not the trial court;
     under Ark. R. App. P.--Crim. 2(f), the trial court cannot
     dismiss an appeal without stipulation by the parties or a
     motion by the appellant; in all other cases, it must be the
     appellate court that decides whether a notice of appeal is
     proper; here, the trial judge exceeded his authority in
     striking the notice of appeal, and the supreme court vacated
     his order.

     Petition for Writ of Certiorari; granted.
     Randel Miller, P.A., by: Randel Miller, for appellant.
     Winston Bryant, Att'y Gen., by:  Kelly Terry, Asst. Att'y
Gen., for appellee.

     Per Curiam. 
     Petitioner Gary Stahl, by his attorney, requests this court to
issue a writ of prohibition to set aside the trial court's order
striking Stahl's notice of appeal.
     On January 24, 1997, Stahl was found guilty of four counts of
drug-related charges and sentenced to 150 years' imprisonment.  Six
days later, Stahl escaped from the Lawrence County Jail and as of
the date this petition was filed remained at large.  Stating that
he knew that Stahl wished to appeal the judgments of conviction,
his counsel filed a notice of appeal on February 20, 1997.  On
February 21, 1997, the prosecuting attorney filed a motion to
strike the notice of appeal and questioned whether Stahl "truly
desired" to appeal his convictions.  The trial court granted the
motion and ordered the notice of appeal struck because Stahl had
not signed the notice of appeal.
     We treat the petition for writ of prohibition as one for writ
of certiorari, and we grant it.  See Bates v. McNeil, 318 Ark. 764,