Court Opinion

ID: 9771573
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:47:36.590159+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:33.114930
License: Public Domain

Darrell Hickman, Justice, concurring. I would also deny the petition. I write separately to address the growing problem of innumerable Rule 37 petitions which we are receiving and the unlimited arguments made, which simply attempt to retry a case. The original opinion in this case was a page and a half. Howard v. State, 286 Ark. 479, 695 S.W.2d 375 (1985). The petition filed for Rule 37 relief is 40 pages. This majority opinion denying Rule 37 relief is nine pages long. The petitioner, like too many seeking postconviction relief, wants not only a second review of his conviction but also an examination of every possible objection, no matter how ridiculous. Recently a postconviction relief petition was filed of a hundred pages. Twenty and thirty page petitions are not uncommon. The postconviction proceeding is becoming a legal system unto itself, beginning with us and our trial courts and winding its way through the federal system. It has become an expensive and time consuming part of the criminal justice system. Mostly it is an exercise to see if the legal system will trip itself; guilt or innocence of the crime is usually irrelevant. To insure that a mistake was not made in the conviction, we are required to examine unlimited allegations. This is all after a trial and after a complete review of the conviction. In effect a system for a second appeal is becoming instituted. We would not tolerate this situation from lawyers and should not from inmates who generally either file their petitions pro se, or with the assistance of a writ-writer. A writ-writer is an inmate that prepares legal petitions and documents for other inmates. (It is ironic that an inmate can practice law without a license while other citizens cannot.) I would place a limit on the number of pages a petition may contain —just as there are limits on pages regarding briefs for appeal. Even a brief in a capital case is limited to 25 typed pages unless permission is obtained to exceed that number. Five pages for a postconviction petition is a reasonable figure. If a person cannot find a legitimate error and explain it in five pages, it doesn’t merit consideration. After all, we have other demands on our time and judgment. Of course, inmates often, not unlike some lawyers they emulate, hold no expectations that one or any argument has merit; they produce dozens and ask us to find one. I say it has gone too far.