SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS
No. CR05-71
KINGRALE COLLINS,
APPELLANT,
VS.
STATE OF ARKANSAS,
APPELLEE,
Opinion Delivered March 9, 2006
APPEA L FR O M T H E C R O SS
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, NO.
CR-96-99
HON. HARVEY LEE YATES, JUDGE,
REVERSED AND REMANDED
1.
APPEAL & ERROR – POSTCONVICTION RELIEF – THERE WAS A FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH RULE
37.5.– Where the supreme court affirmed appellant’s conviction and sentence of death on
June 3, 1999, and where, during the six year interim, several Rule 37 petitions were filed but
were not verified by the appellant, where pro se petitions were filed but were largely illegible
and incomprehensible, where appellant’s present counsel filed a motion for discovery but
nothing in the record memorialized his appointment or whether he was qualified under Rule
37, where reference was made to a Rule 37.5 petition in the transcript of a hearing held May
20, 2004, but the record contained no Rule 37.5 petition filed by present counsel, and the
points addressed at that hearing did not appear in any petition in the record, and there had
been an unrecorded conference in chambers, the supreme court held that, clearly, in this
death case, there had been a breakdown in the postconviction proceedings and remanded the
case to the circuit court for the appointment of a Rule 37.5 qualified attorney and for
appellant to file a verified petition for postconviction relief complying with Rule 37.5.
-2-
CR05-71
Appeal from Cross County Circuit Court; Harvey Lee Yates, Judge; reversed and remanded.
Bill Luppen, for appellant.
Mike Beebe, Att’y Gen., by: David R. Raupp, Sr. Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.
JIM HANNAH, Chief Justice.
Kingrale Collins appeals the denial of his petition for postconviction relief under Ark.
R. Crim. P. 37.5. Collins alleges that his counsel at trial and his counsel on appeal were
ineffective, and that his conviction and sentence of death for capital murder are, therefore,
unconstitutional. He seeks a new trial, or in the alternative, requests that this matter be
remanded to the