This act, with an effective date of August 12, 2005, amended Act 1780 of 2001.
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ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
No. CR 06-1115
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
RONNIE L. GARRETT
Appellant
v.
STATE OF ARKANSAS
Appellee
Opinion Delivered November 16, 2006
PRO SE MOTION FOR EXTENSION
OF TIME TO FILE BRIEF [CIRCUIT
COURT OF PULASKI COUNTY, CR
83-1984, HON. JOHN W. LANGSTON,
JUDGE]
APPEAL DISMISSED; MOTION
MOOT.
PER CURIAM
In 1984, Ronnie L. Garrett entered a plea of guilty to capital murder and rape. He received
a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for the capital murder charge and life imprisonment
for the rape charge. Appellant has been in the custody of the Arkansas Department of Correction
since that time. Subsequently, appellant filed a petition pursuant to Ark. R. Crim. P. 37.1 seeking
postconviction relief. This court upheld the denial of the petition. Garrett v. State, 296 Ark. 550,
759 S.W.2d 23 (1988).
In 2006, appellant filed in the trial court a pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant
to Act 2250 of 2005, codified at Ark. Code Ann. §§16-112-201–07 (Repl. 2006). In his petition,
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appellant sought to set aside or vacate the judgment entered based upon scientific testing of evidence
in support of his claim of actual innocence. The trial court denied the petition without a hearing, and
appellant, proceeding pro se, has lodged an appeal here from that order.
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Now before us is appellant’s pro se motion for extension of time to file his brief. We need
not consider this motion as it is apparent that appellant could not prevail in this appeal if it were
permitted to go forward because he failed to demonstrate a legitimate basis for the writ.
Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal and hold the motion moot. This court has consistently held that
an appeal from an order that denied a petition for postconviction relief will not be permitted to go
forward where it is clear that the appellant could not prevail. See Pardue v. State, 338 Ark. 606, 999
S.W.2d 198 (1999) (per curiam)