Nicholas Jackson v. State of Arkansas

Summary

The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in Nicholas Jackson's criminal case. The court declined to reach Jackson's constitutional challenges to Arkansas Code Annotated section 12-41-505 and Marion County Ordinance No. 2005-15, which authorized incarceration-related “pay for stay” charges, because the amended sentencing order did not impose those charges and the issues were therefore moot. The court also declined to apply the exception for issues capable of repetition yet evading review.

Holdings

1. The constitutional challenge was moot because the amended sentencing order's requirement that Jackson pay expenses related to his incarceration meant that a decision concerning the constitutionality of the implementing statute would have no practical legal effect on him.
2. The court declined to apply the capable-of-repetition-yet-evading-review exception because Jackson failed to explain how his claim would evade review.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Jackson's constitutional challenges to Arkansas Code Annotated section 12-41-505 and Marion County Ordinance No. 2005-15 were moot after the amended sentencing order removed the pay-for-stay costs.
2. Whether the exception to mootness for issues capable of repetition yet evading review applied.
3. Whether the Court of Appeals should reach Jackson's claims that the pay-for-stay provisions violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, article 2, sections 9 and 16 of the Arkansas Constitution, equal-protection guarantees, and prohibitions against vagueness and overbreadth.

Disposition

affirmed