Shawn T. Rainer v. Wendy Kelley, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, 589 S.W.3d 366

Appellant Shawn T. Rainer, pro se, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the circuit court where he was incarcerated challenging a 2011 Mississippi County judgment convicting him of second-degree murder as a habitual offender.
Rainer alleged the trial court lacked jurisdiction and that the judgment was facially invalid because he was convicted under a statute not in effect when the crime occurred.
He reiterated claims previously raised in Rainer v. State (including alleged sentencing under the wrong statutory subsection, ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, and trial error).
The circuit court denied and dismissed the habeas petition; Rainer appealed and sought copies of record materials to prepare his brief.
The Arkansas Supreme Court held Rainer’s habeas petition was plainly without merit: the alleged statutory error was a scrivener’s (clerical) error correctable nunc pro tunc, the statutory amendment did not change the applicable sentence, and many of Rainer’s claims (ineffective assistance, prosecutorial misconduct, amendment-of-information error) are not cognizable in habeas.
The court dismissed the appeal and found Rainer’s motions for record supplementation moot.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Facial invalidity / jurisdiction	Judgment is facially invalid; court lacked jurisdiction; convicted under statute not in effect	Habeas is available only for judgments facially invalid or where court lacked jurisdiction; Rainer pleaded no facts showing either	Denied — petition fails; no facial invalidity or jurisdictional defect shown
Incorrect statutory citation / sentencing under amended statute	Rainer was sentenced under the later (2009) version of the enhancement statute, rendering judgment invalid	The judgment’s incorrect subsection citation is a scrivener’s/clerical error correctable nunc pro tunc; the amendment did not change the applicable sentencing range	Denied — citation was clerical; amendment did not make sentence illegal
Ineffective assistance of counsel	Counsel was ineffective at trial and sentencing	Ineffective-assistance claims are not cognizable in habeas corpus proceedings	Denied — claim not cognizable in habeas
Prosecutorial misconduct / amendment of information	Prosecutorial misconduct and improper amendment of the charging instrument affected conviction/sentence	Such claims do not implicate the facial validity of the judgment or court’s jurisdiction and therefore are not proper habeas grounds	Denied — these claims do not support habeas relief

Rainer v. State, 566 S.W.3d 462 (Ark. 2019) (prior proceedings rejecting related coram nobis and facial-invalidity claims)
Jones v. State, 565 S.W.3d 100 (Ark. 2019) (appeal from denial of postconviction relief will not proceed when appellant cannot prevail)
Martinez v. State, 569 S.W.3d 333 (Ark. 2019) (clerical errors in judgments are correctable nunc pro tunc)
Ratliff v. Kelley, 541 S.W.3d 408 (Ark. 2018) (clerical error does not create habeas grounds)
Timmons v. Kelley, 562 S.W.3d 824 (Ark. 2018) (ex post facto challenge that does not render the sentence void does not attack facial validity)
Mister v. Kelley, 575 S.W.3d 410 (Ark. 2019) (prosecutorial-misconduct claims do not implicate facial validity or jurisdiction)
McArthur v. State, 577 S.W.3d 385 (Ark. 2019) (prosecutorial-misconduct claims are not proper habeas grounds)