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280 Ark. 161

Grain v. State

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided July 11, 1983

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1983-07-11

Relies on Barton v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1983-07-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently April 2014

12 state decisions

801983199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Per Curiam.

¶1The Circuit Court of Pulaski County denied the appellant Arthur Lee Grain’s pro se petition for postconviction relief on March 25, 1983. Appellant did not file a notice of appeal, and he now asks this Court to allow him a belated appeal.

¶2Appellant states that he mailed a notice of appeal to the circuit judge “on time.” He accuses the circuit court of failing to act properly, by which he apparently means that the circuit judge was obligated to see that his notice was properly filed. He does not say when it was mailed, merely that it was timely; he does not say when it was received.

¶3Just as a convicted defendant may waive his right to appeal by failure without good cause to file a notice of appeal, a petitioner whose Rule 37 petition for postconviction relief is denied may also waive his right to appeal. Barton v. State, 278 Ark. 159, 644 S.W.2d 272 (1983). Appellant clearly knew of his appeal right. He gives no good cause for failing to exercise that right by filing a timely notice of appeal with the circuit clerk. If merely stating in conclusory fashion that the notice of appeal was sent to the wrong place were a ground for granting a belated appeal, an appellant would feel little obligation to comply with the rules of appellate procedure. Ignorance of proper procedure alone is not good cause to permit a belated appeal.

¶4Motion denied.

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