Opinion ID: 1780739
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Petition to Correct Illegal Sentences

Text: McCuen raises two additional points that were first argued to the trial court in his motion to correct sentences imposed in an illegal manner: (1) use of an element of the offense as an aggravating circumstance for departure purposes; and (2) denial of his right to allocution. The State, in response, submits that the trial court was correct in not addressing the issues raised in a second petition for relief because a second post conviction petition is precluded by Rule 37.2. We agree. Rule 37.2(b) reads: All grounds for relief available to a petitioner under this rule must be raised in his or her original petition unless the petition was denied without prejudice. Any ground not so raised or any ground finally adjudicated or intelligently and understandingly waived in the proceedings which resulted in the conviction or sentence, or in any other proceedings that the petitioner may have taken to secure relief from his or her conviction or sentence, may not be the basis for a subsequent petition. All grounds for post-conviction relief from a sentence imposed by circuit court, including claims that a sentence is illegal or was illegally imposed, must be raised in a petition under this rule. (Emphasis ours.) The rule is clear, and this court has consistently upheld the rule that a petitioner is limited to one petition for post conviction relief unless the first petition was specifically denied without prejudice to allow the filing of a second petition. See, e.g., James v. State, 289 Ark. 560, 712 S.W.2d 919 (1986) (decided under old Rule 37.2(b) which contained comparable language to correct Rule 37.2(b)). There is nothing in the order denying McCuen's first petition for post conviction relief to suggest that it was entered without prejudice. The trial court was correct in declining to consider these issues on procedural grounds. Affirmed.