Court Opinion

ID: 9646235
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 12:53:23.670184+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:35.855669
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. I concur in affirming this case, but write to disagree with the majority court’s decision to reach the merits regarding appellant’s motion for directed verdict questioning the sufficiency of the State’s proof on the elements of penetration and deviant sexual conduct. In stating his motion for directed verdict at the end of the State’s case, appellant contended the State had failed to prove rape because the State never showed when and where these events occurred. No mention was made that the State had failed to show the elements of penetration or deviant sexual conduct. It was only after the defense had rested, and at the close of all evidence, that appellant renewed his directed-verdict motion, stating the State had failed to prove the time and place of the rapes and the elements of penetration or deviant sexual conduct. Rule 33.1 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure provides that the failure of a defendant to move for a directed verdict at the conclusion of the State’s case and at the close of the case because of insufficiency of the evidence will constitute a waiver of any question pertaining to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury verdict. Rule 33.1 further requires the defendant to specify the respect in which the evidence is deficient, and the renewal of a previous motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence preserves the issue of insufficient evidence for appeal. In Durham v. Stated 320 Ark. 689, 899 S.W.2d 470 (1995), this court made clear that our case law does not militate against the renewal of the same, earlier, specific directed verdict motion at the end of all the proof. However, this court has never intimated that a defendant may omit a reason(s) in defendant’s directed-verdict motion at the end of the State’s case, and later add it when defendant moves for directed verdict at the close of all the evidence. Obviously, if this were the rule, a defendant could simply delay and withhold defendant’s real reasons for directed verdict until after all evidence has been presented. In Walker v. State, 318 Ark. 107, 883 S.W.2d 831 (1994), this court thoroughly discussed and explained the standard for preserving an insufficiency-of-the-evidence argument and set out the practical reasons for requiring that the grounds be specified in a defendant’s directed-verdict motion. One reason is that, in multiple-count cases, it is easy for an element to be overlooked. Another reason given by the Walker court is stated as follows: The reasoning underlying our holdings is that when specific grounds are stated and the absent proof is pinpointed, the trial court can either grant the motion, or, if justice requires, allow the State to reopen its case and supply the missing proof. See also Webb v. State, 327 Ark. 51, 938 S.W.2d 806 (1997). In the present case, as clearly set forth in the majority opinion, the State’s proof sufficiently proved all elements of the rape counts. However, I am of the view that Rains failed to preserve his argument pertaining to the penetration and deviant sex elements, so I would hold Rains is procedurally barred in arguing those elements in this appeal. Imber, J., joins this concurrence.