Court Opinion

ID: 9666359
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:11:45.146701+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:26.891609
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I think the counsel for the appellant was ineffective with respect to his failure to require the state to comply with the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act (I.A.D.). He may have foreseen that the Arkansas courts would not force the state to comply with the I.A.D.; nevertheless, to preclude a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the attorney should have asserted the statutory right to a speedy trial. At the very least he should have explained the right to a speedy trial to his client and made a record for the trial judge and for appellate review. It now appears that perhaps counsel did not know the law himself. This is no disgrace; most lawyers are not familiar with many of the laws in connection with a case when the case commences. However, he should have found the answers and protected his client to the best of his ability. At the same time the performance of the attorney’s obligations would have reduced the chances of a claim of ineffective assistance. Article IV, sections (c) and (e) of the I.A.D. read as follows: (c) In respect of any proceeding made possible by this article, trial shall be commenced within one hundred twenty (120) days of the arrival of the prisoner in the receiving state, but for good cause shown in open court, the prisoner or his counsel being present, the court having jurisdiction of the matter may grant any necessary or reasonable continuance. (e) If trial is not had on any indictment, information, or complaint contemplated hereby prior to the prisoner’s being returned to the original place of imprisonment pursuant to Article V(e) hereof, such indictment, information, or complaint shall not be of any further force or effect, and the court shall enter an order dismissing the same with prejudice. [Emphasis added] The state initiated this procedure and was bound to try the appellant within 120 days. It did not do so. Without objection the appellant was returned to the “sending state” (the United States) without being tried by the state of Arkansas. The consequences to the appellant in this case were exactly what the I.A.D. intended to prevent. The majority opinion is part of a familiar pattern of judicial encroachment upon legislative and executive powers. No matter how clear and unambiguous a statute may be, the judiciary often bends the words into what the courts believe the law ought to be. There is no need to cite precedent in this dissent. Neither precedent nor the separation of powers doctrine seem to deter this court from making new law every Monday morning.