Johnson v. State, 2014 Ark. 74

Appellant Kirk Johnson pled guilty to multiple offenses and received five years’ supervised probation.
State filed a petition to revoke probation on September 7, 2007 for failures to report, pay fees, perform community service, and attend counseling.
Johnson admitted probation violations at a November 10, 2008 hearing, resulting in a revocation finding and sentencing hearing planned for January 12, 2009.
Sentencing hearings were repeatedly postponed; the final sentencing occurred February 16, 2010, resulting in a ten-year sentence.
Johnson appealed arguing (1) sixty-day time-limit for revocation hearings was not observed, and (2) he lacked notice of the alleged violations.
Johnson filed a Rule 37.1 postconviction petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel; the circuit court denied without a hearing; the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Does counsel fail to raise sixty-day revocation deadline claim qualify as ineffective?	Johnson	State	No reversible error; deadline not applicable since Johnson was released on bail.
Did counsel err by not objecting to testimony about violations not in the petition?	Johnson	State	No reversible error; court may consider further evidence for sentencing; no merit shown.

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. Supreme Court 1984) (establishes two-prong ineffective-assistance standard)
Camargo v. State, 346 Ark. 118 (Ark. 2001) (merits-based meritless-argument rule for counsel)
Sanford v. State, 342 Ark. 22 (Ark. 2000) (counsel cannot be ineffective for meritless objections)
Wooten v. State, 338 Ark. 691 (Ark. 1999) (Rule 37.3(a) requires written findings if relief denied without hearing)
Bohanan v. State, 327 Ark. 507 (Ark. 1997) (per curiam; considerations under Rule 37)