ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
No. CR 08-14
WALTER A. McCULLOUGH
Petitioner
v.
STATE OF ARKANSAS
Respondent
Opinion Delivered
February 28, 2007
PRO SE MOTION FOR BELATED
APPEAL [CIRCUIT COURT OF
CRAIGHEAD COUNTY, WESTERN
DISTRICT, CR 2004-820, HON.
VICTOR L. HILL, JUDGE]
MOTION TREATED AS MOTION
FOR RULE ON CLERK AND
DENIED.
PER CURIAM
In 2005, a jury found petitioner Walter A. McCullough guilty of a terroristic act and first
degree battery and sentenced him to an aggregate term of 960 months’ imprisonment in the Arkansas
Department of Correction. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment. McCullough v.
State, CACR 051183 (Ark. App. 2006). Petitioner filed a petition for postconviction relief under
Ark. R. Crim. P. 37.1, which was denied by the trial court in an order entered January 12, 2007.
Petitioner filed a notice of appeal in the trial court on January 22, 2007.
Petitioner has filed in this court a motion for belated appeal requesting that we allow him to
proceed with the appeal. As the notice of appeal was timely, we will treat the motion as a motion for
rule on clerk to lodge the record. See Ray v. State, 348 Ark. 304, 73 S.W.3d 594 (2002). The time
limit set in Ark. R. App. P.Civ. 5(a), as applied through Ark. R. App. P.Crim. 4(a), requires that
the record must be tendered to this court within ninety days of the date of the notice of appeal, unless
2
the circuit court granted an extension of time. Here, no record was tendered to our clerk, other than
the partial record tendered on January 7, 2008, in conjunction with this motion.
InMcDonald v. State, 356Ark. 106, 146 S.W.3d 883 (2004), this court clarified its treatment
ofmotions for rule on clerk and motions for belated appeal. We said that there are only two possible
reasons for an appeal not to be timely, either the party or attorney filing the appeal is at fault or there
is good reason. Id. at 116, 146 S.W.3d 891. If the party believes there is good reason the appeal was
not perfected, the case for