Court Opinion

ID: 9627192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:38:12.633689+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:42.646278
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. I agree with the majority except its final point is somewhat confusing. In that point, Williams argues the Death Penalty Statute is unconstitutional. The majority rejects Williams’s arguments regarding this constitutional issue, but in doing so, seems to rely in part on the case of Sasser v. State, 338 Ark. 375, 993 S.W.2d 901 (1999). Citing Sasser, the majority opinion relates the rule that even constitutional issues must be raised in the trial court and on direct appeal, rather than in a Rule 37 proceeding. The opinion further suggests Williams failed to raise his constitutional issue at trial, and, therefore, the issue was not preserved. In death penalty cases and under Ark. R. Crim. P. 37.5, this court has required a heightened standard of review of capital cases because the State, under Act 925 of 1997 and Rule 37.5, is provided collateral relief so as “to eliminate the need for multiple federal habeas corpus proceedings in death cases.” Jackson v. State, 343 Ark. 613, 37 S.W.3d 595 (2000). Citing Porter v. State, 339 Ark 15, 2 S.W.3d 73 (1999), the Jackson court further stated, “[w]hile there is no constitutional right to a postconviction proceeding, when the State undertakes the role of providing such, as it has done here, it must comport with due process and be fundamentally fair.” In Echols v. State, 344 Ark. 513, 42 S.W.3d 467 (2001), this court also stated that, in death cases where a Rule 37 petition is denied on procedural grounds, great care should be exercised to assure the denial rests on solid footing. See Echols, 344 Ark. at 520-523, (Glaze, J., dissenting). In sum, Jackson and Rule 37, as amended, have carved out a new exception to its established rule that even constitutional issues must be raised in the trial court and on direct appeal, rather than in Rule 37 proceedings. Previously, this court’s only exception to the rule regarding when an issue could be considered in Rule 37 proceedings when not raised at trial or on direct appeal was where that error is “structural” or so fundamental as to render the judgment of conviction void and subject to collateral attack. See id. at 383-384; Collins v. State, 324 Ark. 322, 920 S.W.2d 846 (1996) (trial by a jury of fewer than twelve persons where defendant did not waive a twelve-person jury is fundamental error as to render the judgment of conviction void and subject to collateral attack); Travis v. State, 286 Ark. 26, 688 S.W.2d 935 (a judgment obtained in violation of the constitutional provisions against double jeopardy is sufficient to void a conviction).1 Williams’s constitutional questions in the present case do not raise “structural” errors or issues sufficient to render the sentence and judgment void; nonetheless, while his constitutional issues do not fall within the exception described in Sasser, this court has now decided such constitutional issues in death cases may be considered under Rule 37.5, as amended, and as that rule has recently been interpreted by this court in Jackson and Echols.   The constitutional issue and arguments here are not structural in nature, but instead are merely subject to judicial review and would render Williams’s conviction void.