State v. Robbins
| Citation | 339 Ark. 379,5 S.W.3d 51 |
| Decision Date | 02 December 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. CR 98-1394.,CR 98-1394. |
| Parties | STATE of Arkansas v. Robert A. ROBBINS; Bobbye Jeanne Robbins, Next Friend and Intervenor. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Arkansas |
Mark Pryor, Att'y Gen., by: David R. Raupp, Sr. Asst. Att'y Gen. and Todd L. Newton, Asst. Att'y Gen., Little Rock, for appellant.
No response from appellee.
Jeff Rosenzweig, Little Rock, for Next Friend/ Intervenor.
On June 17, 1998, Robert A. Robbins was sentenced to death for capital murder in Craighead County. On July 9, 1998, Robbins's stand-by attorney filed a notice of appeal. Robbins waived his right to appeal and the trial court found that he had the capacity to knowingly and intelligently waive his right to appeal his death sentence. On review we determined that the trial court's findings were not clearly erroneous and that because of Robbins's waiver of appeal there was no merit in stand-by counsel's request for reversal and a new sentencing phase of the trial.
On remand of the matter, Robbins waived his right to relief under the provisions of Rule 37 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the trial court found that he had the capacity to do so. No mental examination of Robbins was conducted at any time except that evaluation performed during the pretrial proceedings. Robbins was found competent to act as his own attorney during the trial and was determined to have the capacity to understand the difference between life and death and to knowingly and intelligently waive his rights to challenge a death penalty. He resisted suggestions from the trial court that he needed an attorney and stated that he wanted the death penalty to be imposed. The partial record before us relates only to the issue of his capacity to waive appeal of his death sentence and his right to postconviction relief.
No record of the trial itself or of the sentencing phase has been prepared or presented to this court for review. We affirmed the trial court's finding that Robbins had the capacity to waive his rights and he was scheduled for execution on April 12, 1999.
On March 17, 1999, Ms. Bobbye Jeanne Robbins, Robbins mother, filed a "petition of next friend to recall mandates, for stay of execution, and for reexamination of legal and factual issues." We granted the request for a stay of execution, recalled our mandate, and ordered the following issues briefed:
1. Does Ms. Robbins have standing to intervene as a next friend for her son, and, if so, is it appropriate for us to consider her arguments at this time?
2. Should the entire record of the trial in which Mr. Robbins was found guilty and sentenced to death be reviewed to determine whether Mr. Robbins was competent to waive his right to appeal and his postconviction remedies under Rule 37?
3. Should this court overrule Franz v. State, 296 Ark. 181, 754 S.W.2d 839 (1988), and its progeny, and impose mandatory review for trial error in all death-penalty cases regardless of whether the defendant desires such a review?
4. If this court imposes mandatory review of the trial errors in this case, should we then appoint an attorney ad litem for Mr. Robbins to ensure that the record is properly examined and all issues are briefed?
State v. Robbins, 337 Ark. 227, 987 S.W.2d 709 (1999). On October 21, 1999, these issues were briefed and orally argued. We have reconsidered the Arkansas statutes and our court rules and conclude that we must review the record of the trial in order to meet the requirements established by statutes and by our court rules 1.
Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-91-113(a) (1987) states:
(a) The Supreme Court need only review those matters briefed and argued by the appellant, except that, where either a sentence for life imprisonment or death has been imposed, the Supreme Court shall review all errors prejudicial to the rights of the appellant.
Id. (emphasis added). Moreover Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 4-3(h) provides:
When the sentence is death or life imprisonment, the Court must review all errors prejudicial to the appellant in accordance with Ark.Code Ann. Sec. 16-91-113(a). To make that review possible, the appellant must abstract all rulings adverse to him or her made by the trial court on all objections, motions and requests made by either party, together with such parts of the record as are needed for an understanding of each adverse ruling. The Attorney General will make certain and certify that all of those objections have been abstracted and will brief all points argued by the appellant and any other points that appear to involve prejudicial error.
Id. (emphasis added).
To clearly address the issues before us, it is necessary to review some of our previous caselaw. In an effort to clarify the effect of the statute and our court rules upon the question of mandatory appeal of death sentences, we addressed the question of waiver of the right to appeal a death sentence in the case of Franz v. State, 296 Ark. 181, 754 S.W.2d 839 (1988). In Franz, where a prison chaplain sought to appear and petition as next of friend in a death-sentence case, we established that a person sentenced to death could choose not to appeal that decision, provided that the defendant had the capacity to understand the difference between life and death and to knowingly and voluntarily waive his right to appeal. Id. The standing of Rev. Franz to raise the issue was less tenable than the standing of Robbins's mother in the present case. In Franz, we quoted with approval the following language from Davis v. Austin, 492 F.Supp. 273 (N.D.Ga. 1980):
The court must start with the proposition that members of the public in general do not have a right to intercede as "next friend" in an action such as this because they are morally or philosophically opposed to the death penalty. On the other end of the scale, close relatives, such as a parent, spouse, or sibling, who maintain a close personal relationship with the aggrieved, would be appropriate persons to maintain a "next friend" action.
Id. In Franz, we recognized that notwithstanding our conclusion that Rev. Franz lacked standing, we should address the issue presented. We stated:
However, as has often been noted, "the penalty of death is different in kind from any other punishment imposed under our system of criminal justice." Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 188, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976). Because of the punishment's uniqueness and irreversibility, we choose to state clearly the law in Arkansas regarding the waiver of appeal in death cases.
As we did in Franz, we choose to review and state clearly the law in Arkansas regarding what responsibilities we have under the statutes of Arkansas and our own court rules to conduct our own review of the record in a case in which a sentence of death is imposed. In the limited circumstances of this case, involving a death sentence from which Robbins has waived his right to appeal, we accept his mother's petition for the limited purpose of further clarifying our duties and responsibilities.
In Franz, we held that a person sentenced to death could choose not to appeal that decision, provided the defendant had the capacity to understand the difference between life and death and to knowingly and voluntarily waive his right to appeal. That remains the law. However, that does not resolve the issue before us. Both statutes and our own rules have imposed upon this court the responsibility to review the record for all errors prejudicial to the rights of the appellant. Our rules also impose upon the Attorney General the responsibility of certifying that all objections have been abstracted and the duty to brief "any other points that appear to involve prejudicial errors." See Sup.Ct. R. 4-3(h).
Whether Robbins may voluntarily waive his right to appeal was decided in Franz. Whether Robbins or any other person sentenced to death should have the power and authority to suspend the Arkansas statutes and our own court rules imposing duties and responsibilities upon the court itself is a different matter, and one we now address.
Recognizing that there must be adequate power in the judiciary to check the arbitrary and capricious imposition of a death sentence, we held in Collins v. State, 261 Ark. 195, 548 S.W.2d 106 (1977), that those safeguards existed in Arkansas and stated:
The Arkansas judiciary is vested with broad powers to check the arbitrary, capricious, wanton or freakish imposition of the death sentence by a jury. Those powers exist at both trial and appellate levels.
* * *
In capital offenses, for many years all errors of the lower court prejudicial to the rights of appellant have been required to be heard and considered by this court and, if we found any prejudicial error by the trial court, this court was required to reverse and remand the cause for a new trial, or, in the discretion of this court, modify the judgment.2 ... Appellate review of cases in which the death penalty has been imposed has always been more comprehensive than in other cases. For, e.g., error in failure to properly instruct the jury with reference to punishments that it might impose has been held to be reversible, even though defendant did not request such an instruction.
Id. (citations omitted). We further held:
These sentencing and review procedures certainly leave no substantial risk that the death sentence will be imposed randomly, arbitrarily, capriciously, wantonly or freakishly, and tend to promote evenhanded, rational and consistent imposition of the death penalty.
The rationale of Collins was that no death-sentence case would fail to be reviewed as required by statutes and our court rules. Justice George Rose Smith, writing for the minority, pointed out that:
An effort is then made to show that our present laws in fact assure an appellate review in every case. As the majority observe, however, the review depends upon the trial judge and defense counsel...
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