Williams v. Payne

• Decision Date: 12 November 2021
• Docket Number: CV-21-147
• Citation: 2021 Ark. 212
• Parties: JACKIE L. WILLIAMS APPELLANT v. DEXTER PAYNE, DIRECTOR, ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION APPELLEE
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

2021 Ark. 212

JACKIE L. WILLIAMS APPELLANT
v.
DEXTER PAYNE, DIRECTOR, ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION APPELLEE

No. CV-21-147

Supreme Court of Arkansas

November 12, 2021

PRO SE APPEAL FROM THE JEFFERSON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 35CV-20-670] HONORABLE JODI RAINES DENNIS, JUDGE

Jackie L. Williams, pro se appellant.

Leslie Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Adam Jackson, Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.

SHAWN A. WOMACK, Associate Justice

Appellant Jackie L. Williams appeals the circuit court's dismissal of his fourth pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Williams, who is incarcerated in the county where he filed his petition, alleged that he was charged by information with three separate counts of rape under the same docket number but was wrongfully tried in three separate trials. Williams contends that, following his first trial and conviction for rape, the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to convict him of the remaining counts of rape. According to Williams, after the first conviction, his sentence had been executed, and the court lost jurisdiction to modify or amend the original sentence. Williams claims that once he filed the notice of appeal for his first conviction, the circuit court did not have jurisdiction to proceed with the other trials. Williams further contended that his conviction of three counts of rape in separate trials violated the prohibition against double jeopardy. We are unpersuaded by Williams's claims and affirm the circuit court's dismissal of his petition.

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I. Background

Williams raped three women in 1994 and was later charged with three separate counts of rape. The three charges were severed and tried separately. A jury convicted Williams of rape on count two, and he was sentenced as a habitual offender to twenty-five years' or 300 months' imprisonment. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed. Williams v. State, CR-96-725 (Ark. App. Apr. 2, 1997) (unpublished). Shortly thereafter, another jury convicted Williams of rape for count three, and he was sentenced as a habitual offender to life imprisonment. We affirmed that conviction on January 29, 1998. Williams v. State, 331 Ark. 263, 962 S.W.2d 329 (1998). In his final trial on count one, a jury again found Williams guilty of rape, he was sentenced to life imprisonment as a habitual offender, and a sentence was imposed for all three counts to run consecutively, which we upheld. Williams v. State, CR-97-1499 (Ark. May 4, 2000) (unpublished per curiam).

Williams subsequently filed three claims for habeas relief, all of which the circuit court denied. This court affirmed those denials on appeal.^[1] Williams raised a double jeopardy claim in his third habeas petition, but we concluded that Williams's claim was not cognizable in a habeas proceeding because it did not implicate the facial validity of the judgment. Williams v. Kelley, 2017 Ark. 200, 521 S.W.3d 104. Moreover, we determined that the double jeopardy claim was inconsistent with Williams's assertion that the three rapes were

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separate, unrelated offenses-it is not unconstitutional to impose separate punishments for three distinct crimes. Id.

II. Standard of Review

We will uphold a circuit court's decision on a petition for writ of habeas corpus unless it is clearly erroneous. Hobbs v. Gordon, 2014 Ark. 225, 434 S.W.3d 364. A decision is...