Rainer v. State

ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

PER CURIAM

NOVEMBER 29, 2001

SHAWN RAINER

Petitioner

v.

STATE OF ARKANSAS

Respondent

CACR 99-635

PRO SE MOTION FOR PHOTOCOPY OF TRIAL TRANSCRIPT AND OTHER MATERIAL AT PUBLIC EXPENSE [CIRCUIT COURT OF MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, CHICKASAWBA DISTRICT, NO. CR 92-106, CR 98-205]

MOTION DENIED

In 1998, Shawn Rainer was found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced to 240 months' imprisonment. The trial court in the same proceeding revoked a prior suspended sentence. The court of appeals affirmed the judgment of conviction but reversed and dismissed the revocation order. Rainer v. State, CACR 99-635 (March 15, 2000).

Rainer, who contends that he is indigent, now seeks at public expense a copy of the trial transcript and other material filed on appeal.1 Petitioner invokes the Freedom of Information Act. As grounds for the request, petitioner asserts that he has valid grounds for a petition for postconviction relief pursuant to Criminal Procedure Rule 37.

The motion is denied. The Freedom of Information Act, codified as Ark. Code Ann. §25-19-101 et seq, does not require an appellate court to provide photocopying at public expense. See Moore v. State, 324 Ark. 453, 921 S.W.2d 606 (1996). A petitioner is not entitled to a free copy of material on file with this court unless he demonstrates some compelling need for specific documentary evidence to support an allegation contained in a timely petition for postconviction relief. See Austin v. State, 287 Ark. 256, 697 S.W.2d 914 (1985). Indigency alone does not entitle a petitioner to a free photocopying. Washington v. State, 270 Ark. 840, 606 S.W.2d 365 (1980). As a Rule 37 petition filed at this time by the petitioner would be untimely, he has failed to demonstrate that he is entitled to photocopying at public expense to proceed under Rule 37. Criminal Procedure Rule 37.2(c) provides in pertinent part that a petition under the rule is untimely if not filed within sixty days of the date the mandate was issued upon affirmance of the judgment. The mandate in petitioner's case was issued on April 4, 2000; therefore, the time for filing a petition for postconviction relief pertaining to the case elapsed June 3, 2000. Time limitations imposed in Criminal Procedure Rule 37 are jurisdictional in nature, and a circuit court cannot grant relief on an untimely petition. Benton v. State, 325 Ark. 246, 925 S.W.2d 401 (1996); Hamilton v. State, 323 Ark. 614, 918 S.W.2d 113 (1996); Harris v. State, 318 Ark. 599, 887 S.W.2d 514 (1994); Maxwell v. State, 298 Ark. 329, 767 S.W.2d 303 (1989).

It should be noted that when an appeal has been lodged in either this court or the court of appeals, the appeal transcript and other material filed on appeal remain permanently on file with the clerk. Persons may review a transcript or other material in the clerk's office and photocopy all or portions of it. An incarcerated person desiring a photocopy of a transcript or other material on file may write this court, remit the photocopying fee, and request that the copybe mailed to the prison. All persons, including prisoners, must bear the cost of photocopying.

Moore, supra.

Motion denied.

1 For clerical purposes, the motion has been filed under the docket number assigned to the direct appeal of the judgment which was lodged in the court of appeals. This court decides motions for transcript because such motions are considered to be requests for postconviction relief. See Williams v. State, 273 Ark. 315, 619 S.W.2d 628 (1981).