Page:Walls v. State (2000).pdf/3

Rh Mark Pryor, Att'y Gen., by: David R. Raupp, Sr., Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.

 L. B Justice. The appellant, Charles A. "Jack" Walls, III, appeals from a judgment of conviction for six counts of rape, following a resentencing in which he was sentenced to three life terms and three forty-year terms. The three life terms were fixed to run concurrently with each other, as were the three forty-year terms. The three forty-year terms, however, were to run consecutively to the life terms. Walls now appeals on grounds that the trial judge, Judge Lance Hanshaw, was biased at the resentencing hearing and should have recused or, alternatively, permitted him to withdraw his guilty and nolo contendere pleas. We hold that there was no abuse of discretion in Judge Hanshaw's denial of the recusal motion or in his denial of Walls's second motion to withdraw his guilty and nolo contendere pleas. We additionally conclude that based on the record before us, it appears that Judge Hanshaw has violated the Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct. Accordingly, we direct the clerk of this court to forward a copy of this opinion to the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission for action.

This is the second appeal we have had on Walls's sentencing. In Walls v. State, 336 Ark. 490, 986 S.W2d 397 (1999) (Walls I), which was handed down by this court on March 4, 1999, we held that Judge Hanshaw had abused his discretion when he allowed testimony about the Stocks murders to be introduced as part of victim-impact evidence and then stated at sentencing that he held Walls responsible for those murders when he set Walls's sentence. We, accordingly, reversed the sentences and remanded the case to the trial judge for resentencing. It is the subsequent resentencing that is at issue in this appeal.

The chronology of events is important to our resolution of this matter. On January 22, 1998, Judge Hanshaw conducted a sentencing hearing following Walls's plea of guilty to five counts of rape and a plea of nolo contendere to one count of rape. Walls had been a boy scout leader, and the rapes were perpetrated against boy scouts under his care. On February 4, 1998, Judge Hanshaw sentenced Walls to four life terms and two forty-year terms, with all sentences to run consecutively.

On the day of the sentencing, Judge Hanshaw made statements to reporters from two television stations. Channel 7, the ABC