Arkansas Supreme Court Decisions 2024

Justia Opinion Summary: The appellant, Daryl Jason Scarbrough, was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery by the Pulaski County Circuit Court and sentenced to life imprisonment with an additional forty-year term. Scarbrough appealed…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case involves a dispute between Union Pacific Railroad Company and its employee, Randy G. Franklin. Franklin, a long-time employee of Union Pacific, brought a gun to work and stored it in his locked vehicle, which…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2018, John Patrick Cullen pleaded nolo contendere to second-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to seventy-two months' imprisonment. He did not appeal his conviction or sentence. In 2021 and 2022, Cullen filed…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Damien Echols, one of the "West Memphis Three," who was convicted for the murder of three eight-year-old boys in 1993. Echols, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, were found guilty, with…

Justia Opinion Summary: In Arkansas, attorney Chris Corbitt and other plaintiffs sought to challenge the prohibition of firearms in courthouses. Corbitt had previously attempted to bring a firearm into the Pulaski County District Courthouse and…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around the conviction of Leashebia Davis for capital murder. The incident occurred on May 4, 2020, when Elvis Kendal was shot and killed. Davis was charged with capital murder on July 1, 2020, and was…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around a dispute over a medical marijuana cultivation license issued by the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission to Bennett Scott “Storm” Nolan II. 2600 Holdings, LLC, an unsuccessful applicant for the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Jessie Hill, a prisoner serving life imprisonment without parole for capital murder and an additional 720 months for first-degree murder, filed multiple pro se petitions for writ of habeas corpus. He claimed double…

Justia Opinion Summary: David Stewart, an inmate, appealed the denial of his pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He argued that his conviction for two counts of sexual assault violated the prohibition against double jeopardy and that a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Eddie Lee Patrick, Jr., a prisoner, appealed the denial of his pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus by the Jefferson County Circuit Court. Patrick was convicted of rape and terroristic threatening in the first…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around Chris Corbitt, a holder of an Enhanced Concealed Carry License (ECCL), who filed a complaint for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief against Arkansas State University (ASU) and its…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves a group of appellants who allegedly purchased luxury vehicles with funds provided by Dilmurod Akramov, the owner of CBC and D&O Group. The appellants would then transfer the vehicle titles back to…

Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, Inc., and Conrad Reynolds (appellants) who filed a complaint against John Thurston, the Arkansas Secretary of State, the Arkansas State Board of Election…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Arkansas ruled in favor of the county assessor and other similarly positioned defendants, affirming the lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Ronald and Mitzi Kimbrough. The plaintiffs,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed a lower court's decision dismissing Floyd Sagely's claim that Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-73-103, which prohibits a person who has been involuntarily committed to a mental…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Arkansas reversed a lower court's ruling in a dispute involving the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (ADFA) and two car dealerships, Trotter Ford and Trotter Auto. The case centered…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Arkansas reviewed an appeal from Lemuel Whiteside, who was challenging the denial of his petition for postconviction relief under Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.1. Whiteside was previously…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Arkansas Supreme Court reversed and remanded a decision of the Phillips County Circuit Court, which had found in favor of Kit and Jole Wilson in their dispute with the Arkansas Department of Finance and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Fred and Sandra Monaco took legal action against the Faulkner County Assessor and the Faulkner County Tax Collector concerning the 2021 assessment of their property. Sandra Monaco had purchased a parcel of timberland in…

Justia Opinion Summary: In the case, Royce Calkins appealed a Stone County Circuit Court order that convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment, plus a fifteen-year…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the appellant, William Nelson, appealed his conviction of first-degree domestic battery by a Lonoke County jury in the Supreme Court of Arkansas. He raised seven points on appeal: (1) substantial evidence…

Justia Opinion Summary: In the Supreme Court of Arkansas, the defendant, Kevonce Ephriam, was appealing his conviction for capital murder. Ephriam was convicted for the death of his three-month-old son, whom he had custody of at the time of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Arkansas upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Ricky Lewis Neal, a blind man who was sentenced as a violent-felony habitual offender to life imprisonment. The case arose from the death of…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1980, Thernell Hundley was convicted of capital murder and rape, and received a life sentence without parole. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders were…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the Supreme Court of Arkansas was hearing an appeal regarding the distribution of the estate of John Haverstick Sr., specifically an annuity that he had purchased. The appellants were John Sr.'s sons, John…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1992, Darren Woodruff, the appellant, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in Arkansas. In 2023, he appealed pro se, claiming that his sentence was illegal because he was…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case from the Supreme Court of Arkansas, defendant Robert J. Williams, Jr. appealed his conviction for capital murder and aggravated assault. Williams argued that the trial court erred in granting the State's…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed the verdict of the Ashley County Circuit Court convicting Robert J. Williams, Jr. of capital murder and aggravated assault and sentencing him to life imprisonment without parole and…

Justia Opinion Summary: In the Supreme Court of Arkansas, Jason Farmer, an inmate, appealed the denial of his pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus, which he filed alleging ineffective assistance of his trial and appellate counsel, as well…

Justia Opinion Summary: In November 2020, Deputy James Oswald found Rhys Franklin asleep in a parked car on the side of the road. Franklin exhibited signs of intoxication, admitted to drinking, and refused to submit to a field sobriety test. He…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed the first-degree murder conviction and life imprisonment sentence of Justin Petty, who appealed on the grounds that the trial court had abused its discretion when it denied his…

Justia Opinion Summary: John Faulkner was convicted of rape, introduction of a controlled substance into the body of another, and tampering. After injecting the victim with ketamine, Faulkner had non-consensual sex with her and later tried to…

Justia Opinion Summary: In the case before the Supreme Court of Arkansas, the appellant, Marlon Smith, was appealing his conviction and life sentence for first-degree murder. His appeal centered around two main arguments. Firstly, he contended…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this appeal from the Supreme Court of Arkansas, appellant Fred Kimball Sr. was convicted by a Benton County jury on two counts of rape, for which he received two concurrent life sentences. Kimball appealed on the…