Court Opinion

ID: 7822397
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:59:16.820254+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:46.212298
License: Public Domain

Per Curiam. Petitioner Cecil Knappenberger was charged with second degree murder and convicted by a jury of manslaughter, Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-1504 (Repl. 1977). He was sentenced to a term of ten years imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. We affirmed. Knappenberger v. State, 278 Ark. 382, 647 S.W.2d 417 (1983), amended on denial of rehearing (March 28, 1983). When this case first came before us on direct appeal, petitioner raised the same allegations that he now raises in this petition. In our first opinion we indicated our approval of an evidentiary hearing on the allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel without requiring a separate verified petition for postconviction relief in this Court. On rehearing, we amended our original opinion to note that A.R.Gr.P. Rule 37.1 requires that a separate verified petition for postconviction relief be filed in this Court after a case has been affirmed on appeal if the allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel are being raised for the first time. Petitioner has now submitted such a petition. Permission is granted for petitioner to proceed in circuit court on the specific allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel set out in the petition. Petition granted. Adkisson, C.J., and Hays, J., dissent.