ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

March 25, 2004

JOHN RAYMOND JONES

Appellant

v.

STATE OF ARKANSAS

Appellee

CR 03-1417

PRO SE MOTION TO DISMISS APPEAL [CIRCUIT COURT OF HOWARD COUNTY, NO. CR 99-117, HON. CHARLES YEARGAN, JUDGE]

APPEAL DISMISSED; PRO SE MOTION MOOT

Per Curiam

In 2000, judgment was entered reflecting that John Raymond Jones had entered a plea of guilty to aggravated robbery and kidnapping. An aggregate sentence of 120 months' imprisonment was imposed. In 2003, Jones filed in the trial court a petition for postconviction relief seeking to have the judgment of conviction corrected. The petition was denied, and Jones has lodged an appeal of the order in this court.

Now before us is appellant's motion asking that the appeal be dismissed. Appellant states that he has filed a petition for writ of error coram nobis in the trial court and that he desires that the record in this appeal be used as an exhibit to the coram nobis petition. We find good cause to dismiss the appeal but decline to do so on appellant's motion inasmuch as the appeal record lodged here cannot be removed from the custody of our clerk for use as an exhibit in circuit court.

The petition filed in the trial court was untimely, and thus appellant was procedurally barred from proceeding with a petition for postconviction relief. This court has consistently held that an appeal of the denial of postconviction relief will not be permitted to go forward where it is clear that the appellant could not prevail. 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 for postconviction relief is untimely if not filed within ninety days of the date the judgment on a plea of guilty was entered. As stated, appellant was convicted in 2000 but did not file his petition until 2003, which was outside that ninety-day period. Time limitations imposed in Criminal Procedure Rule 37 are jurisdictional in nature, and a circuit court cannot grant relief on an untimely petition. Benton v. State, 325 Ark. 246, 925 S.W.2d 401 (1996); Hamilton v. State, 323 Ark. 614, 918 S.W.2d 113 (1996); Harris v. State, 318 Ark. 599, 887 S.W.2d 514 (1994); Maxwell v. State, 298 Ark. 329, 767 S.W.2d 303 (1989).

Appeal dismissed; motion moot.