Green v. State , 453 S.W.3d 677 ( 2015 )

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SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS
No. CR-14-885
JAMES EDWARD GREEN Opinion Delivered January 22, 2015
APPELLANT
PRO SE MOTIONS FOR EXTENSION
V. OF TIME TO FILE APPELLANT’S
BRIEF AND “OF ‘FORMAL
GRIEVANCES’”
STATE OF ARKANSAS [DREW COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
APPELLEE NOS. 22CR-02-213, 22CR-08-3, 22CR-08-
4]
HONORABLE RANDY WRIGHT,
JUDGE
APPEAL DISMISSED; MOTIONS
MOOT.
PER CURIAM
In 2014, appellant James Edward Green filed a petition for writ of error coram nobis in
the trial court challenging a judgment entered in 2008 that reflected appellant’s guilty pleas in
three cases. Appellant entered his pleas to first-degree terroristic threatening, second-degree
sexual assault, and having violated the terms of a suspended imposition of sentence on an
additional count of first-degree terroristic threatening, and he received an aggregate sentence of
thirty-six months’ imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. The trial court
denied the petition for the writ, and appellant lodged this appeal. He has now filed a motion
requesting an extension of time in which to file his brief and another motion in which he
requests that this court direct its clerk to file his tendered brief on the basis that personnel at the
prison have interfered with his ability to mail the brief in a timely manner. Because we dismiss
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the appeal, the motions are moot.
An appeal from an order that denied a petition for postconviction relief, including a
petition for writ of error coram nobis, will not be permitted to go forward where it is clear that
the appellant could not prevail. Millsap v. State, 2014 Ark. 493 (per curiam). It is clear from the
record that appellant cannot prevail.
Where a judgment of conviction was entered on a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or
where the judgment of conviction was not appealed, a petition for writ of error coram nobis is
filed directly in the trial court. McJames v. State, 2010 Ark. 74. The trial court denied the petition
on the basis that this court had not granted permission for appellant to proceed in the trial court.
A prisoner who appealed his judgment and who wishes to attack his conviction by means of a
petition for writ of error coram nobis must first request that this court reinvest jurisdiction in
the trial court because the filing of the transcript in an appellate court deprives the trial court of
jurisdiction. Maxwell v. State, 2012 Ark. 251 (per curiam). Appellant did not appeal the judgment
at issue; nevertheless, we affirm the denial of the petition. This court can affirm the circuit court
if it reached the right result albeit for the wrong reason. See Nalls v. State, 2014 Ark. 434, 445
S.W.3d 509 (per curiam).
Where a petitioner in a coram-nobis proceeding has served the sentence imposed in the
criminal judgment, the petition is moot. Williford v. State, 2014 Ark. 86 (per curiam). Appellant
filed his petition more than six years after the judgment had been entered imposing the thirty-
six-month sentence. The public records of the Department of Correction reflect that appellant
is currently incarcerated on other charges. Where it is evident that a petitioner has served his
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term of incarceration for the conviction challenged, his claim is moot because the remedy that
he seeks, a new trial, is not available even if the petition states cause for the writ. Webb v. State,
2009 Ark. 497 (per curiam). Appellant could not demonstrate that he was entitled to the writ,
and the trial court did not err in denying relief.
Appeal dismissed; motions moot.
James Edward Green, pro se appellant.
No response.
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