Strafaci v. State

David Newbern, Justice.

This is an appeal from denial of a petition pursuant to Ark. R. Crim. P. 37 on the part of the appellant, Ford E. Strafaci, to set aside a plea of guilty entered in 1983 to a charge of first degree murder. The state concedes that the court’s actions in taking the plea did not comply with Ark. R. Crim. P. 24 which requires the court to establish that there is a factual basis for the plea. The issue has thus become whether the evidence taken at the Rule 37 hearing supplied the factual basis for the plea. We hold that it did, and thus the decision of the trial court is…