ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
No. CR 06-1310
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
TERRY LYNN KUELPER
Appellant
v.
STATE OF ARKANSAS
Appellee
Opinion Delivered February 1, 2007
PRO SE MOTION TO FILE BELATED
BRIEF [CIRCUIT COURT OF BENTON
COUNTY, CR 2002-626, HON.
TOMMY J. KEITH, JUDGE]
APPEAL DISMISSED; MOTION
MOOT.
PER CURIAM
In 2003, Terry Lynn Kuelper was found guilty by a jury of two counts of rape and sentenced
to an aggregate term of thirty years’ imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. The
Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed. Kuelper v. State, CACR 03-1379 (Ark. App. Oct. 12, 2005).
Subsequently, appellant timely filed in the trial court a petition for postconviction relief pursuant to
Ark. R. Crim. P. 37.1. The trial court denied the petition and appellant lodged a pro se appeal here
of that order.
Now before us is appellant’s pro se motion to file a belated brief. We need not consider the
motion as it is apparent that appellant could not prevail if the appeal were permitted to go forward.
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
proceed 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); Seaton v. State, 324 Ark. 236, 920 S.W.2d 13 (1996) (per curiam).
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Arkansas Criminal Procedure Rule 37.1(d) requires that the petition be verified and that an
unverified petition may not be filed without leave of the court. Morris v. State, 365 Ark. 217, ___
S.W.3d ___ (2006) (per curiam); Shaw v. State, 363 Ark. 156, ___ S.W.3d ___ (2005) (per curiam).
The verification requirement for a petition seeking postconviction relief is of substantive importance
to prevent perjury. Boyle v. State, 362 Ark. 248, ___ S.W.3d ___ (2005) (per curiam);
Knappenberger v. State, 278 Ark. 382, 647 S.W.2d 417 (1983). In order to serve this purpose, a
petitioner must execute the