Court Opinion

ID: 9765484
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:03:45.212404+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:10.390589
License: Public Domain

BILLINGS, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the principal opinion and write only to further call attention to continued rule violations by some attorneys that represent defendants in appeals to this Court, both direct appeals and post conviction proceedings. And, so long as this Court countenances such violations they will continue. As Judge Rendlen has noted in the principal opinion, the page limitation for briefs is habitually flaunted and disregarded. Of equal importance is the use and abuse of so-called plain error assignments by counsel, particularly in death penalty cases.
In this case, point after point is asserted in appellants brief that were not objected to at trial and not carried forward as an assignment of error in the motion for new trial — all squarely in violation of the rules and case law of this Court. In recent years some public defenders have grown accustomed to defaming fellow attorneys and charging them with derelictions, contrary to the rules of ethics governing attorneys. Such alleged derelictions can lead to defamation suits by wrongfully maligned attorneys, as well as possibly giving rise to malpractice claims by defendants.
It is no answer to suggest the ends justify the means because the death penalty is involved. The rules should be strictly enforced and the Court should not permit different rules because the death penalty has been assessed. This Court is under legislative mandate to review such cases and the rules of recognized and sound judicial procedure should not be disregarded in the process. Plain error review should be the exception, not the rule, of review. And, when the Courts rules and decisions for appellate review have not been followed, such afterthought assignment of errors should be declared procedurally barred. Harris v. Reed,— U.S.-, 109 S.Ct. 1038, 103 L.Ed.2d 308 (1989); Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983).
Here, appellant’s initial brief assigned three points of error, only two of which were properly preserved for appellate review. The supplemental brief contained 12 points and some additional sub-points as assignment of error for plain error review. Only one point of the supplemental brief had been properly preserved. It appears obvious that the second appellate brief writer has seined the trial transcript for alleged trial errors and advanced them for plain error review.
The same public defender that filed the so-called “supplemental brief” in this case also filed a 150-page brief in State v. Petary, 781 S.W.2d 534 (Mo. banc 1989). The brief contained only three points that were properly preserved for appellate review. In addition, 14 additional points were asserted as reviewable under the plain error rule.
Plain error review is specifically limited by Rule 30.20. The rule provides as follows:
Allegations of error that are not briefed or are not properly briefed on appeal shall not be considered by the appellate court except errors respecting the sufficiency of the information or indictment, verdict, judgment, or sentence. Whether briefed or not, plain errors affecting substantial rights may be considered in the discretion of the court when the court finds that manifest injustice or miscarriage of justice has resulted therefrom.
The bottom line is that unless the Court finds that manifest injustice or miscarriage of justice has resulted, assignments not raised at trial and preserved in the motion *778for new trial are deemed waived and should be procedurally barred. In future days those same alleged trial errors will probably be asserted as grounds for federal ha-beas corpus relief. This writer is aware that federal habeas corpus has provided a safe and peaceful harbor where the death penalty has been assessed. Witness this Court’s affirmation of the death penalty in 59 cases since 1981 and only one case having made it through the federal system and the sentence carried out. As Justice Hickman of the Supreme Court of Arkansas said in Fretwell v. State, 289 Ark. 91, 708 S.W.2d 630, 635 (1986):
If the review process, which is directed and controlled by the federal courts, continues to require about ten years and at least seven or eight separate reviews to approach finality, then the process is not just inefficient, it is a failure. A legal system such as ours which fails to honestly, directly, and efficiently address legal questions of this magnitude will lose the most important foundation stone of that system — the respect of the people.
Justice Hickman’s record keeping in that case and other Arkansas death penalty cases led to post conviction proceedings being abolished by the Supreme Court of Arkansas in Whitmore v. State, 299 Ark. 55, 771 S.W.2d 266 (1989).
This Court has taken steps to insure that death penalty cases are processed in an expeditious but orderly fashion in the trial courts. However, this effort is for naught where repeated extensions of time are granted for the filing of the record, transcript, and briefs on appeal. Again, the rules are being abused by those who seek delay for no other reason than to delay proceedings in this Court, all the while conjuring up additional “plain errors”.
This writer suggests the day may not be too far away for this Court to follow Arkansas’ lead and abolish post conviction proceedings in Missouri — the spirit of comity and federalism notwithstanding.