Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-504

Habitual offenders — Proof of previous conviction

Applied in 22 court decisions — leading case Lockhart v. Nelson (1988)

Most recently applied in John Kyle Day v. Laura "missy" Michelle Wardlaw; Bradley County Board of Election Commissioners; Desha County Board of Election Commissioners; Drew County Board of Election Commissioners; Cole Jester, in His Official Capacity as Arkansas Secretary of State; Republican Party of Arkansas; And Sharon Stuthard, in Her Official Capacity as Secretary of the State Committee of the Republican Party of Arkansas (February 2026)

Acts 1975, No. 280, § 1003; 1977, No. 474, § 6; 1981, No. 252, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-1003.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A previous conviction or finding of guilt of a felony may be proved by any evidence that satisfies the trial court beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was convicted or found guilty.

(2) Any of the following are sufficient to support a finding of a prior conviction or finding of guilt: A certified copy of the record of a previous conviction or finding of guilt by a court of record;

(3) A certificate of the warden or other chief officer of a correctional institution of this state or of another jurisdiction, containing the name and fingerprints of the defendant as the name and fingerprints appear in the records of the warden's or other chief officer's office; or

(4) A certificate of the chief custodian of the records of the United States Department of Justice, containing the name and fingerprints of the defendant as the name and fingerprints appear in the records of the chief custodian's office.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.