Summary
The Supreme Court of Arkansas denied Leonard L. Bean’s pro se petitions to reinvest jurisdiction in the trial court to consider a writ of error coram nobis and for a writ of certiorari to complete the record. The court held that ineffective-assistance and trial-error claims were not cognizable in coram-nobis proceedings and that the double-jeopardy issue had already been resolved. The court also denied supplementation of the record because the proposed materials would not support a meritorious claim.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Bean could obtain permission to pursue a writ of error coram nobis based on allegations that trial counsel was impaired by a prescription narcotic and rendered ineffective assistance.
- Whether Bean's double-jeopardy claim fell within the permissible scope of coram-nobis relief.
- Whether Bean was entitled to a writ of certiorari permitting him to supplement the record with additional criminal-case documents.
Holdings
- Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and trial error, including alleged constitutional trial error, are outside the scope of a writ of error coram nobis and must instead be raised, when timely, under Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.1.
- Bean's double-jeopardy claim did not warrant coram-nobis relief because the claim was trial error outside the four recognized coram-nobis categories and had already been resolved against him in an interlocutory appeal.
- The petition for writ of certiorari was properly denied because Bean identified no ground for issuance and the proposed documents could not support claims that were already meritless and outside the scope of coram-nobis review.
Key quotations
“A writ of error coram nobis is an extraordinarily rare remedy, more known for its denial than its approval.” (at 1)
“Allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel and trial error are outside the purview of a coram-nobis proceeding.” (at 2)
“Allegations of trial error, even those of constitutional dimension, do not provide a ground to grant a writ of error coram nobis.” (at 3)
Factual background
In 2013, a jury convicted Leonard L. Bean of attempted rape and two counts of second-degree sexual assault arising from offenses prosecuted in Sebastian County. Bean had previously faced related rape and sexual-assault proceedings in Crawford County involving the same alleged victim, including an acquittal on rape and dismissal of a second-degree sexual-assault charge. After affirmance of his Sebastian County convictions, Bean alleged that trial counsel was impaired by a prescription narcotic and that the sexual-assault conviction subjected him to multiple prosecutions for the same criminal episode.
Procedural history
A Sebastian County jury convicted Bean of attempted rape and two counts of second-degree sexual assault, and the circuit court imposed an aggregate sentence of 840 months' imprisonment. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions. Bean then sought coram-nobis relief based principally on ineffective-assistance and double-jeopardy claims and sought certiorari to add documents to the record; the Arkansas Supreme Court denied both petitions.