Opinion

Wilson v. State

  • 306 Ark. 179
  • 810 S.W.2d 337
  • 1991 Ark. LEXIS 341
Court
Supreme Court of Arkansas
Filed
Jun 24, 1991
Status
Published
On the bench
Brown, Dudley, Glaze
Cited by
2 cases
Authority
More cited than 56.7%

The opinion

Per Curiam. The appellant is appealing the denial by the trial court of a petition for post-conviction relief filed pursuant to Criminal Procedure Rule 37. The appellant’s brief filed by the attorney appointed to represent the appellant is flagrantly deficient in that there is no abstract of the information, judgment and commitment order, the Rule 37 petition, or the court’s order denying the Rule 37 petition. Counsel now seeks permission to supplement the abstract. The state argues that it would be unfair to permit the appellant to remedy the deficiencies with a supplemental abstract after the state’s brief has already been filed.

Although the appeal is from an order denying post-conviction relief and the right to effective assistance of counsel under the sixth amendment does not extend to collateral attacks on a judgment, we will not penalize the appellant by dismissing the appeal because his attorney prepared a deficient brief. If appellant had been proceeding pro se and had submitted a deficient abstract, we would not hesitate to affirm pursuant to our Rule 9 since a litigant who elects to proceed pro se is required to conform to the rules of procedure. Peterson v. State, 289 Ark. 452 , 711 S.W.2d 830 (1986). Where the error was made by appointed counsel, however, we will permit the abstract to be supplemented.

A copy of this opinion shall be forwarded to the Committee on Professional Conduct.

Motion granted.

Dudley and Brown, JJ., concur. Glaze, J., dissents.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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