Court Opinion

ID: 7821605
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:56:26.270671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:45.137474
License: Public Domain

Darrell Hickman, Justice, concurring. I agree that the case has to be affirmed on the two issues raised on appeal. However, to me the disturbing points are the obvious arguments that were not made during the trial or presented on appeal. The prosecuting attorney filed an amended information ten days before trial alleging five counts of incest in addition to the five counts of rape that had originally been charged. The additional allegations concerned the same five instances involved in the charges of rape. No objection was made to this late amendment. The record reflects that it would be contrary to Arkansas law for French to have been convicted for both rape and incest in several of the instances charged. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-105. There was no objection raised regarding this matter during the trial. The evidence was insufficient to support findings of guilty for rape and incest in at least four of the five circumstances considered. The record reflects that there was penetration in only one of those instances. That would mean a conviction could be had for only sexual abuse in the first degree, a less serious crime. There was no objection made regarding this matter at the trial. The Attorney General’s office filed a motion with this court on two occasions to require the appellant to file an adequate brief and we granted that request. I am not in favor of the so-called “plain error” rule whereby we review errors on our own, but in some instances the errors are so flagrant that they cannot go unnoticed. It may be that it was strategy in this case for French’s counsel not to make any objections but that is difficult for me to conceive. In any event, that strategy or oversight, whichever it may have been, is one that should not go unmentioned by us. It is in the best interest of the state that new trials not be necessary. That can only mean that a prosecuting attorney and a circuit judge have some duty to see that a trial is conducted so that no error is committed. It is a responsibility that cannot be totally borne by the counsel representing a criminal defendant. If any further proceedings are necessary in this case, then in my judgment those proceedings will not be solely the fault of counsel representing French.