Smith v. State (Majority)
Annotate this CaseOn September 2, 2011, the circuit court entered an order denying Petitioner's petition for postconviction relief. Petitioner was represented in the proceeding by his retained attorney, Ronald Davis. No appeal was taken from that order, and Petitioner subsequently sought to proceed with a belated appeal pursuant to Ark. R. App. P.-Crim. 2(e). Petitioner contended that he instructed Davis on the day the order was entered to perfect an appeal from the order and paid him to do so. Davis, however, claimed that he was not informed by Petitioner within the time period allowed for filing a notice of appeal that Petitioner desired to appeal from the order denying postconviction relief. Because the claims in Petitioner's motion were in conflict with the assertions made by Davis, the Supreme Court remanded the matter to the circuit court for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of whether Davis was timely informed by Petitioner that Petitioner desired to appeal the order denying postconviction relief.
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