Branham v. State

Steele Hays, Justice.

In 1985 Earl Branham was charged with nineteen counts of possession of a controlled substance, dilaudid, with intent to deliver. A plea bargain was accepted by the trial court and in accordance with its terms one of the charges was dropped and Branham pled guilty to the remaining eighteen counts, receiving a sentence of twenty years in the Department of Correction with five years suspended.

Six months later Branham filed a petition for post-conviction relief under A.R.Cr.P. Rule 37. He alleged that Ark. Stat. Ann. § 82-2617 (Schedule II) under which he was charged had been…