Billy Ray Hale v. A.L. Lockhart, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

Billy Ray Hale, an inmate of the Arkansas Department of Correction, is currently serving five concurrent life sentences and an additional concurrent twenty-year term of imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated robbery, and one count of battery. As a result of the plea negotiations, the original capital felony murder charge filed against Hale was reduced to first degree murder, thereby reducing the maximum available penalty from death to life imprisonment. After exhausting his state remedies, Hale filed a petition…