Davis v. Reed

• Decision Date: 11 April 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-1231,93-1231
• Citation: 873 S.W.2d 524,316 Ark. 575
• Parties: Raymond Dale DAVIS, Appellant, v. M.E. "Dale" REED, Warden, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 524

873 S.W.2d 524

316 Ark. 575

Raymond Dale DAVIS, Appellant, v. M.E. "Dale" REED, Warden, Appellee.

No. 93-1231.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

April 11, 1994.

Raymond Dale Davis, pro se.

Clint Miller, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.

BROWN, Justice.

This appeal is taken from a denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The appellant, Raymond Dale Davis, contends on appeal as he did in circuit court that the original court accepting his guilty plea and sentencing him lacked jurisdiction to do so. We disagree and affirm the circuit court's decision to deny his petition for habeas corpus relief.

The facts precipitating Davis's petition are undisputed. On January 6, 1992, the prosecuting attorney for the Eleventh Judicial District-West- "West filed two felony informations for capital murder and attempted capital murder against Davis in Lincoln County Circuit Court. Lincoln County and Jefferson County comprise the Eleventh Judicial District-West. The charged offenses occurred in Lincoln County.

Davis subsequently entered into plea negotiations with the prosecutor. On May 6, 1992, Circuit Judge Randall Williams of the Eleventh Judicial District-West signed an order setting a hearing in the Jefferson County Courthouse for the purpose of taking a guilty plea from Davis and for sentencing. That order was filed with the circuit clerk in Lincoln County. On May 12, 1992, the plea proceedings and sentencing were held before Judge Williams in the Jefferson County Courthouse. Davis pled guilty to each of the three counts and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment and two terms of life without parole, to run consecutively. Two reports of the plea negotiations and a judgment and commitment order were filed with the Lincoln County Circuit Clerk on the same day. Davis was subsequently incarcerated in the Arkansas Department of Correction.

On June 18, 1993, Davis filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Lincoln County Circuit Court, alleging that Judge Williams, who accepted his plea of guilty and sentenced him in Jefferson County, lacked jurisdiction to do so. Appellee M.E. Dale Reed, Warden of the Cummins Unit, moved to dismiss the petition, and the circuit court in Lincoln County with Judge Fred D. Davis, III, sitting denied the petition on the basis that the appellant had raised a venue question and not a jurisdictional issue as required for habeas corpus relief. This appeal followed.

We note initially that a writ of habeas corpus is proper when a judgment of conviction is invalid on its face or when a circuit court lacked jurisdiction over the cause. McConaughy v. Lockhart, 310 Ark. 686, 840 S.W.2d 166 (1992); Mackey v. Lockhart, 307 Ark. 321, 819 S.W.2d 702 (1991); Birchett v. State, 303 Ark. 220, 795 S.W.2d 53 (1990); Wallace v. Willock, 301 Ark. 69, 781 S.W.2d 484 (1989). An appeal is the proper procedure for the review of a circuit court's denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Waddle v. Sargent, 313 Ark. 539, 855 S.W.2d 919 (1993); In Re Review of Habeas Corpus Proceedings, 313 Ark. 168, 852 S.W.2d 791 (1993). On appeal, Davis argues the circuit court in Jefferson County lacked jurisdiction to take his plea and sentence him. His jurisdictional argument appears to embrace improper venue in Jefferson County and the absence of authority vested in Judge Randall Williams to act on his case.

To begin with venue and jurisdiction, though sometimes used interchangeably, are two distinct legal concepts. Venue is the geographic area, like a county, where an action is brought to trial. Black's Law Dictionary 1557 (6th ed.1990). Jurisdiction is the power of a court to decide cases and presupposes control over the subject matter and parties. Black's Law Dictionary 853 (6th ed.1990). This court has stated that venue may be waived in a criminal case within the territorial boundaries of the judicial district. See Waddle v. Sargent, supra; see also Ark.R.Crim.P. 24.8(c)(i) (waiver of venue for plea of guilty for a second offense committed in another jurisdiction). Since Davis entered his plea in Jefferson County, a contemporaneous objection was required to raise the issue of improper venue and preserve it for appeal. Harrod v. State, 286 Ark. 277, 691 S.W.2d 172 (1985). In Harrod, the venue issue was decided by the defendant's failure to object to venue at sentencing and to request transfer to another county within the same judicial district. In the case before us, the same objection was lacking on Davis's part. Indeed, he voluntarily participated with counsel in the guilty plea and sentencing in Jefferson County. Any venue argument which Davis might have had was waived, and his objection cannot be raised for the first time on appeal.

For his second point, Davis appears to urge that the circuit judge--Randall Williams--had no authority to conduct any proceedings in this case. We begin by underscoring the fact that Judge Williams was a circuit judge for the Eleventh Judicial District-West. A circuit judge has the authority to preside over proceedings in any courtroom, in any county, within the judicial district for which that judge was elected. Ark.Code Ann. § 16-13-210 (1987); Waddle v. Sargent, supra. In Waddle, we said:

Article 7, Section 13 of the Arkansas Constitution provides that a circuit judge "shall reside in and be a conservator of the peace within the circuit for which he shall have been elected."...