An Arkansas prison inmate serving a 60-year-sentence in Jefferson County has failed to convince the Arkansas Supreme Court that he was convicted twice for the same offense.
Joe E. Morgan pleaded guilty to rape and first-degree sexual assault and later filed a petition in circuit court alleging he was entitled to neurological testing to demonstrate his incompetence to enter a guilty plea.
Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis denied that petition, as well as several others that he filed beginning in 2015 and in the supreme court ruling, Judge Rhonda K. Wood wrote that the face of the judgment does not show that Morgan was sentenced twice for the same offense and a separate order pertaining to a sex-offender assessment is not an additional judgment of conviction.
Morgan will be eligible to apply for parole in 2056.
