SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS.
No. CR-16-275
CLAUDE SMITH Opinion Delivered May 5, 2016
PETITIONER
PRO SE MOTION FOR BELATED
V. APPEAL OF ORDER
[MILLER COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT,
STATE OF ARKANSAS NO. 46CR-10-431]
RESPONDENT
MOTION DISMISSED.
PER CURIAM
In 2011, petitioner Claude Smith was found guilty by a jury of aggravated robbery
and sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed.
Smith v. State,
, reh’g denied (Oct. 31, 2012).
In 2013, Smith filed in the trial court a pro se petition for postconviction relief
pursuant to Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.1 (2011). The petition was dismissed
on June 25, 2013, on the ground that it was not timely filed. No appeal was taken from
the order, and Smith, proceeding pro se, now seeks leave to proceed with a belated appeal
of the order.
Belated appeals in Rule 37.1 cases are governed by Rule 2(e) of the Arkansas Rules
of Appellate Procedure–Criminal (2015). The Rule provides in pertinent part that “no
motion for belated appeal shall be entertained by the Supreme Court unless application has
been made to the Supreme Court within eighteen (18) months of the date of entry of
judgment or the order denying postconviction relief.” Smith filed the instant motion for
Cite as
belated appeal here on March 28, 2016. The eighteen-month period to file a motion for
belated appeal in the instant case elapsed in December 2014. Accordingly, Smith did not
meet his burden of filing a timely motion under the Rule.
This court has consistently held that no motion for belated appeal will be considered
unless application is made within the eighteen-month period allowed by the Rule.
Gunderman v. State,
