Court Opinion

ID: 9747732
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:29:41.63318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:25.728515
License: Public Domain

T om Glaze, Justice, dissenting. I realize the majority-court in this matter is trying to resolve a belated issue now being raised by Robbins; however, his remedy, if he has one, is in the federal courts. This case has been before us six times. In State v. Robbins, 342 Ark. 262, 27 S.W.3d 419 (2000), it appeared that Robbins obtained a final decision. There, this court gave him an automatic review of his murder conviction and death sentence, even though he confessed to the murder and waived all of his rights, stating that he wanted the death penalty. An abbreviated review of the evidence is helpful to understand why this case remains before us. Robbins indisputably murdered his former girlfriend, Bethany White, in an especially cruel and depraved manner. He planned the murder for several weeks, and wrote his plans in a journal kept on his computer. Robbins drove from Fayetteville to Jonesboro to encounter Bethany, and chose the time and place (her home) to kill Bethany when she was alone. When Bethany refused to allow him in her house, he forced his way inside. Robbins hit Bethany and strangled her until his hands turned blue. He then broke Bethany’s neck by twisting it. Because Robbins was still uncertain of her death, he took a kitchen knife and attempted to thrust it up her nasal passage to “scramble her brains.” Next, Robbins took duct tape and wrapped it over Bethany’s mouth and nose, so no air could enter; the medical examiner later opined Robbins had succeeded in suffocating Bethany. After killing Bethany, Robbins went upstairs, found a decorative or novelty sword, and returned downstairs where he tried to thrust the sword through her heart, but the sword bent and would not penetrate her chest. Robbins then placed a fortune cookie on Bethany’s chest that read, “You will soon have an opportunity to make a change to your advantage.” Robbins, while smoking and drinking a soda, remained to be sure Bethany was dead. He then left Bethany’s body for her mother to find. Robbins subsequendy chose to waive his right to court-appointed counsel, so he could proceed pro se and seek the death penalty. The trial court still assigned Robbins standby counsel, even though Robbins was found competent to stand trial, and found he had the capacity to choose between life and death. On appeal, this court gave Robbins an automatic review, and affirmed the trial court’s findings. This court also held that, after an analysis of the adverse rulings on objections, motions, and requests made under Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 4-3(h), the record revealed no prejudicial error; nor did the record show any Wicks exceptions to the rule in Arkansas that an argument for reversal will not be considered in the absence of an appropriate contemporaneous objection in the trial court. Sometime after this court’s decision affirming Robbins’s capital-murder conviction and death sentence, Robbins had a change of mind; he obtained counsel to challenge this court’s decisions by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court. As the majority opinion states, the federal district court dismissed Robbins’s petition until that court knew Robbins had exhausted his state remedies. Those remedies, in my opinion, were exhausted when Robbins chose not to file a petition for rehearing in this court’s last decision, Robbins v. State, 342 Ark. 262, 27 S.W.3d 419 (2000). Robbins fails to suggest any rule, statute, or case which provides him the right to reopen his case for reconsideration of this court’s final decision after the court’s mandate was handed down. He merely refers to this court’s inherent authority, but mentions no case law that supports his position. In fact, our law is to the contrary that, once this court’s mandate is handed down, the disposition becomes final. See Johnson v. State, 321 Ark. 117, 136, 900 S.W.2d 940, 951 (1995). Here, Robbins simply failed to file a timely petition for rehearing. The State poses the problem that, if this court reopens this case after the mandate has issued, appeals like this will never end because every convicted murderer will point out that he or she has been denied a fundamental right, and therefore, his or her case should be reopened. I agree. The majority court has tried to narrow the scope of its decision to reopen the case, but, in doing so, its opinion reflects that a case can be reopened when a “fundamental error” is shown to exist. However, such language is unfortunate and ambiguous because “fundamental error” is a term our Arkansas appellate courts use to explain why they do not recognize “plain error.” In other words, “fundamental error” and plain, error are essentially the same. See Buckley v. State, 349 Ark. 53, 76 S.W.3d 825 (2002) (rejecting arguments that the third and fourth Wicks exceptions suggested a “limited basis for recognition of fundamental and plain error”). Perhaps, the majority means to employ the term “structural error.” See e.g. Reynolds v. State, 341 Ark. 387. 18 S.W.3d 331 (2000) (failure to object to erroneous jury instruction denied defendant óf the right to a jury trial on the elements upon which a conviction for first-degree murder must be predicated); Calnan v. State, 310 Ark. 744, 841 S.W.2d 589 (1992) (denial of right to jury trial constituted “structural error”). Nonetheless, I am of the opinion that this court’s decision was final when its mandate was issued in this case, so I would deny Robbins’s motion to reopen it. Imber, J., joins this dissent.