Simmons v. State, CR
| Decision Date | 10 March 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. CR,CR |
| Citation | 766 S.W.2d 422,298 Ark. 193 |
| Parties | Ronald Gene SIMMONS, Petitioner, v. STATE of Arkansas, Respondent. 89-45. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Robert E. Irwin, John Harris, Russellville, for petitioner.
Jack Gilliean, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for respondent.
APPEAL IN A CAPITAL MURDER CASE IN WHICH THE DEATH
PENALTY WAS IMPOSED.
The petitioner, Ronald Gene Simmons, has filed his petition requesting expedited review of his waiver of direct appeal. On February 10, 1989, a Johnson County jury convicted the petitioner of capital murder and sentenced him to death by lethal injection, on March 16, 1989, at 7:00 o'clock a.m. Following the trial, the petitioner notified the trial judge of his desire to waive his appeal and after an evidentiary hearing held on March 1, 1989, the trial judge found the petitioner was competent to waive his right to a direct appeal. In accordance with this court's decision in Franz v. State, 296 Ark. 181, 754 S.W.2d 839 (1988), petitioner now submits to this court a transcript of the lower court's proceedings along with his petition, and requests we review those proceedings in accordance with the rule established in the Franz case. After careful review of those lower court proceedings, we grant petitioner's request.
In Franz, we held that when a defendant sentenced to death declines to exercise his unqualified right to appeal, we will not automatically acquiesce to his desire. We stated that a defendant sentenced to death will be able to forego an appeal only if he has been judicially determined to have the capacity to understand the choice between life and death and to knowingly and intelligently waive any and all rights to appeal his sentence. This court further held that we must review a lower court's determination on the issue of the waiver of an appeal in a capital case, and that the state has the burden of bringing the lower court's record on this issue to this court for review. We added that the record must be lodged at least seven days before the execution date. All of these requirements have been met.
In sum, we would note that the trial court considered, and made a part of this proceeding, the same psychological evaluations that were introduced in Franz. Since those evaluations were alluded to in detail there, we need not reiterate those findings in this opinion. In addition, the trial court added to the record before us a forensic evaluation which was filed in...
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Whitmore v. Arkansas
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