Tester v. State

James Dunham, a state-salaried, part-time public defender for the Fifth Judicial District, was appointed by the trial court to represent appellant Roy Don Tester, an indigent defendant, in this criminal case. Following a jury trial that concluded on September 2, 1999, Tester was convicted of first-degree murder and capital murder and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. A notice of appeal from the judgment of conviction was timely filed and the record has been lodged with our clerk.

Mr. Dunham now asks this court to relieve him as counsel for…