Charlie Frago

Even-year session creates odd pickle

Lawmakers not sure what to take up

With the state’s first “fiscal” legislative session less than three months away, lawmakers are divided on whether to expand its scope beyond budget items.
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Senator suggests debate on ‘pot’

Easing penalties a possible way to check prison growth, he says

A veteran legislator who this week suggested reassessing criminal penalties for marijuana as a way to curb growth in prison population said Thursday that he hasn’t decided if he’ll offer legislation to that effect.
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LR lawyer is warned by conduct committee

A Little Rock lawyer has been cautioned by a state lawyer-discipline committee for failing to adequately represent a client on a discrimination complaint.
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Worker’s break-in conviction thrown out

The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed and dismissed a breaking and entering conviction against a Union County handyman, citing lack of evidence.
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Justice: Upright elections integral

He urges state aim to protect judiciary

Arkansas has avoided expensive, acrimonious elections for appellate courts, but the state should take precautions to avoid damaging the judicial system, an Arkansas Supreme Court justice writes.
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Arkansas lawyers urged to aid poor

Give of time, money, justice exhorts

Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber urged lawyers Friday to give money and time to increase access to legal services for the state’s poor.
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Appeal fails in murder of woman, 18, in LR

A man appealing his conviction for the murder of a woman whose body was left in a southwest Little Rock trash bin didn’t offer any details as to why the state didn’t prove its case against him, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
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Fayetteville killer of 2 loses appeal

A Fayetteville man sentenced to death for killing a couple because he suspected them of burglarizing his apartment lost his appeal Thursday at the Arkansas Supreme Court.
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Statements tainted jury, lawyer argues

Relatives’ urgings unfair, court told

James Aaron Miller’s death sentence for the strangulations of a mother and her two children in Fort Smith nearly three years ago was tainted by the victims’ relatives urging jurors to order Miller’s execution, his attorney told Arkansas Supreme Court justices on Thursday.
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Felon’s gun conviction void; new trial set

A Garland County prosecutor misstated the law and a judge “compounded” the error, resulting in the wrongful conviction of a man for illegally possessing a gun, the Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
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