Travis v. State
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS
No.
CR 08-1320
Opinion Delivered APRIL 30, 2009
KENNY TRAVIS, JR.,
APPELLANT,
MOTION FOR BELATED BRIEF
VS.
STATE OF ARKANSAS,
APPELLEE,
GRANTED.
PER CURIAM
Appellant Kenny Travis, Jr., by and through his counsel Craig Lambert, moves this
court for leave to file a belated brief in his Rule 37 appeal.1 This court affirmed Appellant’s
conviction and life sentence for capital murder. Travis v. State, 371 Ark. 621, 269 S.W.3d 341
(2007). Appellant filed a timely petition for postconviction relief, which the Mississippi
County Circuit Court denied by order entered February 20, 2008. This court granted
Appellant’s motion for belated appeal, finding that Appellant had not received a copy or
notice of that order and therefore had demonstrated good cause for filing an untimely notice
of appeal. Travis v. State, 375 Ark. 244, ___ S.W.3d ___ (2008) (per curiam).
The record was lodged and briefing commenced on December 11, 2008. Appellant
was granted a final extension for filing his brief, which was due in this court on March 6,
2009. On March 3, 2009, Appellant filed a motion to stay briefing schedule and petition for
writ of certiorari to complete the record, alleging that a coroner’s report had been filed with
the circuit court on February 26, 2008, six days after the circuit court denied Appellant’s
1
Appellant’s motion is captioned as one for leave to file opening brief out-of-time, which we will treat as a
motion for belated brief.
petition for postconviction relief. This court denied the motion to stay briefing schedule and
petition for writ of certiorari to complete the record on April 2, 2009. Thereafter, on April 8,
2009, Appellant tendered his brief and filed the instant motion requesting to file the belated
brief.
We will accept a criminal appellant’s belated brief to prevent an appeal from being
aborted. See Brown v. State, 373 Ark. 453, ___ S.W.3d ___ (2008) (per curiam). However,
good cause must be shown to grant the motion. See Strom v. State, 356 Ark. 224, 147 S.W.3d
689 (2004) (per curiam) (holding that appellate counsel’s admitted failure to timely file the
brief constituted good cause to grant motion for belated brief); see also In re: Belated Appeals
in Criminal Cases, 265 Ark. 964 (1979) (per curiam).
Here, Appellant’s counsel accepts full responsibility for failing to timely file Appellant’s
brief while awaiting this court’s ruling on the motion to stay briefing schedule and petition
for writ of certiorari to complete the record. Accordingly, we grant the motion to file a
belated brief and forward a copy of this order to this court’s Committee on Professional
Conduct.
Motion granted.
-2-
CR 08-1320
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
