Brown v. State, 2015 Ark. 97

Bruce Wayne Brown was convicted in 2011 of raping his minor stepdaughter and sentenced to life; this court affirmed on direct appeal in Brown v. State.
Brown filed a timely pro se Rule 37.1 postconviction petition in Garland County Circuit Court seeking relief; the circuit court summarily denied the petition without a hearing.
The State raised a question on appeal whether Brown’s Rule 37.1 petition was properly verified, noting apparent date inconsistencies between the notarization and the handwritten affidavit.
Rule 37.1(c) requires a petition be accompanied by a sworn affidavit before a notary, and Rule 37.1(d) requires rejection/dismissal of unverified petitions.
Arkansas precedent treats the verification requirement as substantively important to guard against perjury and has sometimes held that lack of verification deprives the court of jurisdiction to consider the petition.
Because verification bears on this court’s jurisdiction, the Supreme Court remanded to the circuit court for factual findings on whether Brown’s petition was properly verified and ordered the return of findings and any hearing transcript within 90 days.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Brown’s Rule 37.1 petition was properly verified	Brown (implicitly): petition was timely filed and accompanied by an affidavit	State: dates suggest affidavit was not sworn before the notary; verification may be defective	Remanded to circuit court to make factual findings on verification and return record within 90 days
Whether lack of verification deprives circuit/appellate court of jurisdiction	Brown: (not directly argued here)	State: an unverified petition cannot be accepted; lack of verification may strip jurisdiction	Court did not decide categorically here; remanded for factual findings because jurisdictional question depends on verification
Whether the circuit court erred by summarily denying without a hearing	Brown: petition merited consideration/hearing	State: petition may be unverified and thus properly rejected without a hearing	Court did not resolve on merits; directed circuit court to make findings and include any hearing transcript
Whether supplemental DNA pleading affected Rule 37 disposition	Brown: sought to supplement record with DNA facts	State: supplemental pleading was denied by circuit court	Not decided on appeal; noted denial in lower-court order but remand focuses on verification

Brown v. State, 2012 Ark. 399 (affirming Brown’s conviction)
Williamson v. State, 2012 Ark. 170 (holding a circuit court lacks jurisdiction to consider arguments in an unverified Rule 37.1 petition)
Shaw v. State, 363 Ark. 156 (discussing dismissal where petition lacked verification and time limits were missed)
Worthem v. State, 347 Ark. 809 (describing an unverified petition as invalid for jurisdictional purposes)
Carey v. State, 268 Ark. 332 (explaining verification’s purpose to prevent perjury)
Boyle v. State, 362 Ark. 248 (holding counsel may not sign/verify a petitioner’s verification)
Howard v. State, 366 Ark. 453 (remanding death‑penalty case to allow filing of verified Rule 37.5 petition)
Collins v. State, 365 Ark. 411 (similar remand permitting verified petition filing)