JAMES FIELDS

Appellant

v.

STATE OF ARKANSAS

Appellee

CACR 01-63

PRO SE MOTION FOR PHOTOCOPY OF APPELLANT'S BRIEF AT PUBLIC EXPENSE [CIRCUIT COURT OF PULASKI COUNTY, NO. CR 98-3524]

MOTION DENIED

Per Curiam

In 2000, James Fields was found guilty by a jury of aggravated robbery and theft of property for which an aggregate term of 600 months' imprisonment was imposed. The court of appeals affirmed. Fields v. State, CACR 01-63 (Ark. App. September 12, 2001). Fields now seeks by pro se motion a photocopy at public expense of the appellant's brief filed on appeal .1 As a basis for the request, petitioner Fields states only that his attorney did not provide him with a copy of the brief.

The motion is denied. A petitioner is not entitled to photocopying at public expense unless he or she demonstrates some compelling need for specific documentary evidence to support an allegation contained in a timely petition for postconviction relief. Moore v. State, 324 Ark. 453, 921 S.W.2d 606 (1996); Brooks v. State, 303 Ark. 188 S.W.2d 792 (1990); see Austin v. State, 287 Ark. 256, 697 S.W.2d 914 (1985). Indigency alone does not entitle petitioner to photocopying at public expense. Washington v. State, 270 Ark. 840, 606 S.W.2d 365 (1980).

The judgment in petitioner's case was affirmed and the mandate was issued in 2001. Rule37.2(c) requires that a petition for postconviction relief be filed within sixty days of the date the mandate was issued on affirmance of the judgment. Petitioner could not file a timely petition pursuant to Rule 37 at this time, and he does not contend that there is some other postconviction remedy available to him for which access to a copy of the appellant's brief is necessary.

It should be noted that when an appeal has been lodged in this court, the appeal transcript and other material related to the appeal remain permanently on file with the clerk. Persons may review a transcript or other material in the clerk's office and photocopy all or portions of it. An incarcerated person desiring a photocopy of a transcript or other material may write this court, remit the photocopying fee, and request that the copy be mailed to the prison. All persons, including prisoners, must bear the cost of photocopying. Moore v. State, supra.

Motion denied.

1 For clerical purposes, the motion has been filed under the docket number assigned to the direct appeal of the judgment which was lodged in the court of appeals. This court decides motions for transcript because such motions are considered to be requests for postconviction relief. See Williams v. State, 273 Ark. 315, 619 S.W.2d 628 (1981).