A federal judge in Little Rock has recommended that a Drew County man serving a 65-year sentence on methamphetamine convictions be given a new trial because the presiding state judge fast-tracked the trial date at the expense of the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel of his choice.

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Ruling in favor of James Edward Daniels Jr., 45, who has been in the custody of the Arkansas Department of Correction since his Dec. 16, 2010, jury conviction, U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Thomas Ray had harsh words for both the trial judge, Bynum Gibson, and an Arkansas Court of Appeals decision in 2012 that upheld the convictions.

The Court of Appeals "ignored all of the relevant facts in the record," Ray said in his 51-page written recommendation that U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes grant Daniels' habeas corpus petition, filed in 2014 by attorney Craig Lambert of Little Rock. Ray had been scheduled to preside over an evidentiary hearing on the petition Tuesday but decided a hearing wasn't necessary to decide the claims.

If Holmes agrees with Ray and grants Daniels a new trial, the Drew County prosecutor's office will have a limited amount of time to decide whether to retry the case or set Daniels free. U.S. district judges almost always approve magistrate judges' recommended dispositions, but the state has 14 days to file objections to Ray's ruling to try to persuade Holmes to reject the habeas petition.

Meanwhile, Lambert said Wednesday, he intends to ask that Daniels be released on bond while Holmes has the matter under advisement and while any appeals are pending. He said Daniels has been housed lately at the Ashley County jail, where he is participating in a prison work-release program, and when told about Ray's ruling, "was pretty excited."

Judd Deere, a spokesman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, whose office is defending the conviction, said Wednesday that Rutledge "is still reviewing the magistrate's findings and will evaluate how to proceed."

State records show Daniels' first parole eligibility date is Dec. 18, 2025.

His convictions on possession of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver and possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver stemmed from his arrest on Aug. 26, 2010, after drug task-force officers stopped his vehicle on Arkansas 133. According to a summary of the case in Ray's order, Daniels drove off as officers approached, striking the open door of a police car, which caused minor elbow and head injuries to an officer.

A mile-long pursuit that followed ended in Daniels' arrest, and he later admitted that marijuana found in bags along the road belonged to him, but he said methamphetamine found in the bags belonged to a man who was riding with him. His wife and his stepdaughter were also in the car.

Daniels was charged in Drew County Circuit Court on Sept. 14, 2010, and was arraigned, along with his wife and the male passenger, on Oct. 12, 2010.

Ray noted that under the Arkansas Speedy Trial Act, defendants generally must be tried within a year of the date of their arrest, after excluding periods of necessary delay, and that defendants like Daniels who can't make bail and who remain incarcerated as pretrial detainees are to be released if not tried within nine months of their arrest.

Gibson, the circuit judge, announced at the arraignment that he was "fast-tracking" the case out of concern for Daniel and the other man being detained "unnecessarily" before trial, and set the trial for Dec. 14, 2010, just 62 days from Daniels' initial appearance.

Ray's order cited a transcript of the hearing before Gibson, in which attorneys and the judge discussed the likelihood that Daniels' parole from an earlier conviction would quickly be revoked because of the new charges. The transcript indicated that Gibson urged the parties to work out a plea agreement that day, to alleviate concerns about transporting Daniels back and forth from a state prison to Drew County for court hearings.

"While there is much that commends 'swift justice,' the trial court's proposal to use a plea bargain 'to be done with the case in two minutes' was far too long on swiftness and far too short on justice, especially given the seriousness of the charges against Daniels, who was a 'habitual offender' and faced a possible life sentence if convicted," Ray wrote.

Ray further criticized Gibson for suggesting that the prosecutor use the fast-track trial date "as leverage" to get Daniels to accept the suggested plea bargain.

"This judicially orchestrated effort to use Plea and Arraignment to get rid of Daniels' case 'in two minutes' imperiled a host of his constitutionally protected rights, including his right to a presumption of innocence; his Sixth Amendment right to counsel of his choice; and his Fourteenth Amendment right to receive a fair trial," Ray said in his recommendation to Holmes.

The order notes that at the arraignment in Drew County, Gibson called a recess to allow Daniels' court-appointed public defender and the prosecutor to discuss a plea offer. It says Daniels subsequently rejected the prosecutor's 80-year plea bargain.

The transcript of the Drew County hearing indicates that Daniels then personally addressed the court, asking for an opportunity to let his parents hire an attorney of his choosing. Gibson replied that he wouldn't allow the hiring of a new attorney to postpone the trial to give the attorney time to prepare. It quoted him as saying, "The case will be tried in December regardless."

Ray said the trial judge "provided no plausible justification" for scheduling Daniels' trial so quickly, "carving the mid-December trial date in stone," and "holding the mid-December trial date like the Sword of Damocles above the head of any 'new lawyer' Daniels might attempt to hire to represent him."

At a pretrial hearing a month later, Daniels' newly hired attorney, Dale West of Monticello, decided not to take the case after all, after speaking briefly to a "personal friend" who was the police officer injured in Daniels' arrest, Ray's order shows. It says Gibson went on to grant only a one-day postponement of the trial to give Daniels' newly reinstated public defender time to prepare.

Ray wrote that Gibson acted as prosecutor, defense attorney and judge during the arraignment, repeatedly abusing his discretion, and then continued to deny defense requests for a postponement up to the day the trial began. Ray called the state judge's actions "an unreasoning and arbitrary insistence upon expeditiousness in the face of a justifiable request for delay."

Metro on 06/09/2016