Gates v. State
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ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
No.
CR 98-1197
Opinion Delivered
JASON GATES
Petitioner
April 23, 2009
PRO SE MOTION FOR TRANSCRIPT
[CIRCUIT COURT OF LONOKE
COUNTY, CR 96-232]
v.
MOTION DENIED.
STATE OF ARKANSAS
Respondent
PER CURIAM
A jury found petitioner Jason Gates guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to life
imprisonment without parole. We affirmed the judgment. Gates v. State, 338 Ark. 530, 2 S.W.3d
40 (1999). Petitioner has filed a pro se motion in this court seeking a copy of, or access to, the trial
transcript.1 Petitioner asserts that he is indigent, that he has not previously received a copy of the
transcript, and that there are issues he believes may merit a challenge to his conviction. He avers that
he requires the transcript to present these issues to this court.
Indigency alone does not entitle a petitioner to free photocopying. Nooner v. State, 352 Ark.
481, 101 S.W.3d 834 (2003) (per curiam). Petitioner is incarcerated and therefore not in a position
to examine the materials in our clerkâs office; to provide him access to the record will require that
he be provided copies at public expense. A petitioner is not entitled to a free copy of material on file
with this court unless he or she demonstrates some compelling need for specific documentary
1
For clerical purposes, the motion was assigned the same docket number as the direct appeal of
the judgment.
evidence to support an allegation contained in a petition for postconviction relief. Id. In order for
this court to provide a petitioner with a copy of a trial record to facilitate a postconviction
proceeding, he must make a showing that the record is necessary by identifying specific points that
cannot be properly raised without access to the trial record. Thomas v. State, 328 Ark. 753, 945
S.W.2d 939 (1997) (per curiam).
Petitioner has not identified any postconviction relief that may be available to him or any
proceeding that has been filed. He has not identified specific points that cannot be properly raised
in any such proceeding, even though he alleges that issues do exist. Petitioner has therefore failed
to make the necessary specific demonstration of need for the record to be provided to him at public
expense.
We note that when an original action has been filed in this court, the material pertaining to
it remains permanently on file with the clerk, unless it is being maintained under seal. Persons may
review the material in the clerk's office and photocopy all or portions of it. An incarcerated person
desiring a photocopy of material on file here may write this court, remit the photocopying fee, and
request that the copy be mailed to the prison. All persons, including prisoners, must bear the cost
of photocopying. Moore v. State, 324 Ark. 453, 921 S.W.2d 606 (1996) (per curiam).
Motion denied.
-2-
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