Opinion ID: 1471392
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the period from june 17, 1991 to october 7, 1991

Text: Clements argues that the period from the June 17, 1991 pretrial hearing, in which his counsel of choice was removed from the case, and October 7, 1991, the date on which this court reversed Judge Lofton's removal of Richard Atkinson and placed him back on the case, is not excludable. (See Clements v. State, 306 Ark. 596, 817 S.W.2d 194 (1991) in which we held that the trial court's removal of Atkinson violated Clements' sixth and fourteenth amendment rights to counsel under the United States Constitution and his right to counsel under Art. 2, Section 10 of the Arkansas Constitution.) Appellant contends that he was without his counsel of his choice during this period due to Judge Lofton's erroneous ruling. He relies upon Glover v. State, 307 Ark. 1, 817 S.W.2d 409 (1991) where we held that a two month period was not excludable when defense counsel was allowed to withdraw without the knowledge of the defendant and the court waited two months to appoint new counsel. Although Clements was without counsel of his choice during this time, it is excludable because it involved an interlocutory appeal filed July 8, 1991. A.R.Crim.P. 28.3(a) specifically excludes periods in which an interlocutory appeal is pending. Also, as we noted above, the appellant was responsible for the continuance which was granted at the June 17th hearing.