Hill v. Payne (Majority, with Dissenting)
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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 jeopardy, violations of his right to due process, insufficient evidence supporting his convictions, and other obscure claims. The Jefferson County Circuit Court dismissed his petitions, noting that Hill's pleadings were often illegible and contained profane language. The court concluded that Hill failed to establish that he was being illegally detained.
Hill had previously filed multiple petitions for postconviction relief, including four habeas corpus petitions, all of which were denied by the circuit court and affirmed on appeal. In his current appeal, Hill argued that his convictions violated the prohibition against double jeopardy, that the charging informations were defective and violated his right to due process, and that there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions.
The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed the circuit court's decision, stating that Hill's claims did not challenge the legality of his sentences or the subject-matter jurisdiction of the trial courts that entered the judgments of conviction. The court noted that a habeas proceeding does not afford a petitioner an opportunity to retry his case and is not a substitute for raising an issue either at trial or on direct appeal. The court concluded that Hill's double-jeopardy claim failed to state a basis for habeas relief, and his sufficiency-of-the-evidence claims represented an abuse of the writ as he had raised these claims in his previous habeas petitions.
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