Court Opinion

ID: 9666171
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:07:00.512938+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:24.427709
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, dissenting. The deputy prosecutor who tried this case stated “There wasn’t a direct request for continuance.” The State’s brief before us admits “the trial court’s order granting a continuance was based on Lewis’ motion to sever the offenses.” The State does not even suggest that the Trial Court order of July 12, 1990, stating that Lewis moved for a continuance effective April 15,1990, was correct, and yet that is the only leg on which the majority opinion can stand. The State cannot argue that Lewis sought any part of the 51 - day delay at issue here, much less a continuance from April 15, 1990, to August 20, 1990. Even if we were to hold, and I find no authority whatever for doing so, that the motion to sever was “tantamount” to a motion to continue, the State argues the August 20 date was based on a “term of court,” suggesting there was proof that a jury could not have been assembled to try Lewis until a new term of court began. The Court’s opinion wisely does not adopt that rationale, as there has been no showing that a jury could not have been empaneled from the venire serving Miller County during the months in question. The majority opinion cites cases in which it was demonstrated that a defendant delayed a trial without moving for a continuance. There is no such proof in this case. If there were any evidence whatever that the severance motion caused the fatal 51-day delay, this would be a different matter. There is none. Arkansas R. Crim. P. 28 is a Rule of this Court. We should not seek to evade its application as has been done in this case. As recently as October 1,1987, we amended the Rule to shorten the time in which a person charged but set at liberty must be tried. One purpose of the Rule is to assure an accused the benefit of the Sixth Amendment and Ark. Const, art. 2, § 10. See Mackey v. State, 279 Ark. 307, 651 S.W.2d 82 (1983). There are other purposes as well, however, including serving the interests of victims of crime and, perhaps above all, the public. See Chandler v. State, 284 Ark. 560, 683 S.W.2d 928 (1983). I can not countenance this obvious attempt to get around the Rule which was so patently applicable and so clearly violated. I respectfully dissent. Brown, J., joins in this dissent.