ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

PER CURIAM

FEBRUARY 1, 2001

ROMARIO V. WALLER

Appellant

v.

STATE OF ARKANSAS

Appellee

CR 00-1029

PRO SE MOTION TO EXPEDITE RULING ON PLEADINGS [CIRCUIT COURT OF UNION COUNTY, NO. CR 95-545, HON. CAROL CRAFTON ANTHONY, JUDGE]

MOTION DENIED AND APPEAL DISMISSED

On June 24, 1996, judgment was entered reflecting that Romario V. Waller had pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree for which a sentence of forty-years' imprisonment was imposed. Imposition of an additional five years' imprisonment was suspended.1

On August 22, 2000, Waller filed in the trial court a petition for postconviction relief pursuant to Criminal Procedure Rule 37 challenging the judgment. The court denied the petition, and the record on appeal from that order has been lodged here. Now before us is a motion filed by appellant Waller in which he asks that this court expedite consideration of several pleadings he has filed.

The motion is denied, and the appeal is dismissed because the petition filed in the trialcourt was untimely. All other pleadings filed here by appellant are moot. This court has consistently held that an appeal of the denial of postconviction relief will not be permitted to go forward when it is clear that appellant could not prevail in the appeal. Seaton v. State, 324 Ark. 236, 920 S.W.2d 13 (1996); Harris v. State, 318 Ark. 599, 887 S.W.2d 514 (1994); Reed v. State, 317 Ark. 286, 878 S.W.2d 376 (1994); see Chambers v. State, 304 Ark. 663, 803 S.W.2d 932 (1991); Johnson v. State, 303 Ark. 560, 798 S.W.2d 108 (1990); Williams v. State, 293 Ark. 73, 732 S.W.2d 456 (1987).

Criminal Procedure Rule 37.2(c) provides in pertinent part that a petition under the rule is untimely if not filed within ninety days of the date the judgment was entered following a plea of guilty. Appellant filed his Rule 37 petition more than four years after the judgment was entered and was thus procedurally barred from proceeding under the rule. The time limitations imposed in Criminal Procedure Rule 37 are jurisdictional in nature; as a result, a circuit court cannot grant relief on an untimely petition. Maxwell v. State, 298 Ark. 329, 767 S.W.2d 303 (1989).

Motion denied and appeal dismissed.

1 Waller also pleaded guilty to arson and first-degree battery in the same proceeding in two other cases.