Court Opinion

ID: 9770819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:22:24.017868+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:21.030954
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, dissenting. This court holds the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to dismiss appellant’s case on speedy trial grounds, and does so because it concludes the state failed to show it exercised due diligence in bringing appellant to trial. Actually, the majority holds the state failed to make a “good faith effort” in obtaining Dr. Card’s presence as a witness and improperly using Card’s presence as a witness and improperly using Card’s unavailability as an excuse for unnecessary continuances. I disagree. The majority court asserts the state should have done more to effectuate service of its subpoena for Dr. Card so as to ensure Card’s presence at the August 17,1988 trial setting. In support of its holding, the court cites Leshe v. State, 304 Ark. 442, 803 S.W.2d 522 (1991), wherein this court stated that, while a trial court has discretion in determining a witness is “unavailable,” that discretion is not unlimited. In Leshe, we stated no effort whatever was made to serve a subpoena on the state’s key witness at her Mississippi address, which was readily available, and therefore held the state made no “good faith effort” in obtaining the witness. Here, about six days before the August 17 trial date, the state timely requested the circuit clerk to issue a subpoena for Dr. Card, but because the subpoena had not been duly served on Card before trial, the state promptly brought the matter to the trial court’s attention and asked for a continuance, which was granted until October 5,198 8. The state then on August 17,1988, and the defense on September 23, 1988, requested subpoenas for Dr. Card once again to obtain the doctor’s presence for the October 5th trial. Clearly, the state exercised its efforts in trying to obtain Card’s presence for the August 17th setting, but the majority requires more than the state’s having duly and timely requested a subpoena for Card. The majority opinion raises questions as to what must prosecutors do in these matters to show they have made a good faith effort in the presence of their witnesses. In addition to Leshe, the majority court also cites the cases of Chandler v. State, 284 Ark. 560, 683 S.W.2d 928 (1985), and State v. Washington, 273 Ark. 82, 617 S.W.2d 3 (1981), to support its position. Chandler, however, involved a drastically different situation where the state made no efforts in locating the accused for a two and one-half year period even though, during that period, the accused had resided at the same residence in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and that address appeared on the accused’s bond release form. In the Washington case, this court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of the defendants’ case on speedy trial grounds, and there, the state requested no subpoena, nor was a subpoena in question. This court upheld the lower court’s ruling to dismiss because the sheriff had failed to notify the defendants to appear in court. The majority court also criticizes the state’s failure to inquire of and obtain from Dr. Card a date Card could appear before scheduling the trial for October 5, 1988. As previously mentioned, appellant also subpoenaed Dr. Card for the October 5th date, so both the state and the appellant had to be concerned about Card’s appearance. The court should not be critical of the state’s inaction in this regard without assigning the same criticism to appellant. In my view, both parties sought Dr. Card as a material witness, and as happens, the doctor proved somewhat difficult to obtain his trial presence when it got closer to the trial date. In any event, if the appellant desired the doctor’s appearance, he could have sought enforcement of his subpoena, if he had any objection to a continuance. For the reasons above, I dissent to the majority court’s reversal and dismissal of this case. Hays, J., joins this dissent.