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301 Ark. 590

Jeffers v. State

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided March 26, 1990

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1990-03-26

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“A ground sufficient to void a judgment of conviction must be one so basic that it renders the judgment a complete nullity, for example, a judgment obtained in a court lacking jurisdiction to try the accused, or a conviction obtained in violation of an accused’s rights against double jeopardy. (Emphasis ours.)”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Rowbottom v. State

Applies AR 5 § 5-1-110

Relies on Travis v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1990-03-26

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently January 2020

11 state decisions

701990200020102020decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Robert H. Dudley, Justice.

¶1In 1980, the appellant pleaded guilty to first degree murder and aggravated robbery. The murder occurred in the course of the aggravated robbery. He was sentenced for both offenses. The trial court later set aside the conviction for aggravated robbery, the underlying offense. See Ark. Code Ann. § 5-1-110(a)(1) (1987). Appellant now stands convicted only of first degree murder. In a petition for post-conviction relief under A.R.Cr.P. Rule 37, he contends that the trial court, in 1980, failed to establish a factual basis for his plea and failed to establish that his plea was voluntarily or intelligently made. The post-conviction petition was not filed until 1988. The trial court denied relief. We affirm.

¶2 Petitions claiming relief pursuant to A.R.Cr.P. Rule 37 must be filed within three (3) years of the date of entry of judgment, unless the ground for relief would render the judgment of conviction absolutely void. A.R.Cr.P. Rule 37.2(c). A ground sufficient to void a judgment of conviction must be one so basic that it renders the judgment a complete nullity, for example, a judgment obtained in a court lacking jurisdiction to try the accused, or a conviction obtained in violation of an accused’s rights against double jeopardy. Travis v. State, 286 Ark. 26, 688 S.W.2d 935 (1985). A trial court’s failure to establish a factual basis for a guilty plea is not so basic as to render a judgment of conviction a complete nullity.

¶3Affirmed.

Price, J., not participating.
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