State of Arkansas, Appellant v. Christopher Martin, Appellee

Summary

The court dismissed the State's appeal because the circuit court entered a judgment of acquittal after jeopardy attached, and an acquittal cannot be reviewed even if based on an erroneous legal ruling concerning an illegal arrest or the exclusion of evidence. The court characterized the ruling as an acquittal based on insufficient evidence after exclusion of evidence connected to the arrest, rather than as a reviewable pretrial dismissal. Chief Justice Kemp, concurring, would dismiss on the separate ground that the State's appeal presented a fact-bound mixed question outside the permissible scope of State appeals.