Nelson v. State

Appellant, along with Charles Colbert and Ricky Dillard, was charged with the capital felony murder of Cheryl Franklin. Dillard agreed to be a state’s witness, and appellant’s case was severed from his co-defendants’. Appellant was convicted of the lesser included offense of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. We affirmed the trial court’s decision in Nelson v. State, 306 Ark. 456, 816 S.W.2d 159 (1991). On January 22, 1993, appellant filed a pro se petition for postconviction relief. The trial court denied appellant’s requested…