Court Opinion

ID: 9701422
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:19:26.550162+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:23.676081
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. Appellant, Larry Osborn, should have raised his speedy-trial claim on cross-appeal in State v. Osborn, 337 Ark. 172, 988 S.W.2d 485 (1999) (Osborn I). Prior to trial in Osborn I, appellant filed a petition for writ of prohibition with our court on speedy-trial grounds, but we denied the petition without prejudice to raise the issue on appeal. Osborn’s case then went to trial, and he was convicted of aggravated robbery and given a life sentence. However, upon Osborn’s motion, the trial court awarded him a new sentencing trial, from which the State appealed, as authorized under Ark. R. App. P. — Crim. 3(c). Osborn filed no cross appeal raising his earlier speedy-trial claim. For reasons fully stated in Osborn I, we reversed and remanded this cause and directed the trial judge to reinstate Osborn?s life sentence. That would seem to have been the end of Osborn’s ‘case, but instead he wás permitted after reinstatement of his conviction and sentence to raise once again his speedy trial issue which has led to this second appeal. Our criminal rules do not specifically address this situation, and while my research fails to reveal a case where a defendant appellee has cross appealed when the State had appealed, there are numerous cases where the State as appellee has filed cross appeals. See e.g. Mace v. State, 328 Ark. 536, 944 S.W.2d 830 (1997); Moore v. State, 321 Ark. 249, 258-61, 903 S.W.2d 1544, 158-60 (1995); Ashe v. State, 57 Ark. App. 99, 942 S.W.2d 267 (1997). While our Rules of Appellate Procedure — Criminal do not specifically mention cross appeal, as such, our Rules of Appellate Procedure — Civil clearly do (see Ark. R. App. P. — Civ. 3(d)), and these civil appellate rules have commonly been referred to and applied when necessary in criminal appeals. In sum, our procedural and appellate rules do not specifically provide that a defendant, who is denied a writ of prohibition on speedy-trial must raise the issue on cross appeal. Nonetheless, this court denied Osborn’s petition without prejudice to raise the issue on appeal, and an áppeal procedurally includes a cross appeal. Cf. Flemings v. Little, 324 Ark. 112, 918 S.W.2d 718 (1996). To allow Osborn to bring an appeal after his case was finally concluded in Osborn I merely encourages piecemeal appeals — a practice this court has repeatedly and steadfastly opposed.