Opinion
CR 94-823
Opinion delivered September 12, 1994
APPEAL ERROR — ATTORNEY ADMITS MISTAKE IN FILING NOTICE OF APPEAL BEFORE ORDER APPEALED FROM WAS FILED — GOOD CAUSE TO GRANT BELATED APPEAL. — Where attorney for criminal defendant admitted that the notice of appeal was filed before the order appealed from was filed due to a mistake on his part, there was good cause to grant the motion for belated appeal.
Motion for Belated Appeal granted.
William R. Simpson, Jr., Public Defender.
No response.
Appellant, J.B. Whitley, was convicted of theft by receiving during a bench trial on November 19, 1993. He was sentenced on January 10, 1994. Appellant's counsel, William R. Simpson, Jr., filed a notice of appeal on February 7, 1994. However, the order appealed from in this case, the Order of Suspension or Probation, was not filed until March 24, 1994. Thus, the notice of appeal filed in this case was of no effect. Ark. R. App. P. 4; Woods v. State, 316 Ark. 705, 873 S.W.2d 562 (1994); Kelly v. Kelly, 310 Ark. 244, 835 S.W.2d 869 (1992).
Appellant's counsel has by motion regrettably admitted error in filing the notice of appeal prematurely. Therefore, we grant the motion for belated appeal and direct that a copy of this opinion be forwarded to the Committee on Professional Conduct.