State of Arkansas, Appellant v. Christopher Martin, Appellee

Summary

The court dismissed the State's appeal because it challenged a judgment of acquittal entered after the circuit court granted Martin's directed-verdict motion during a jury trial. The court held that the ruling was functionally an acquittal based on insufficient evidence after exclusion of evidence connected to the arrest, and that an acquittal cannot be reviewed even if based on legal error. Chief Justice Kemp, concurring, would have dismissed on the separate ground that the State's appeal presented a fact-bound mixed question outside the permissible scope of a State appeal.