Justices: Capital murder unproved

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a Lincoln County man’s capital-murder conviction, finding that the state had failed to prove the shooting was premeditated.

The court ruled that Circuit Judge Berlin Jones had reached his conclusion that the shooting death of Kwame Turner was premeditated and deliberate “by engaging in speculation and conjecture,” and had improperly shifted the burden of proof onto the defendant, Justin Jamaille Thornton.

It noted the “circumstantial” nature of the evidence.

“The circuit court concluded that this was a deliberate,intentional act because ‘there is nothing in the records that shows anything else.’ … It is, of course, a fundamental principle of criminal law that the state has the burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Justice Donald Corbin wrote for the majority, joined by Chief Justice Jim Hannah and Justices Paul Danielson, Cliff Hoofman and Jo Hart.

Justices Courtney Hudson Goodson and Karen Baker dissented.

Police said they found Turner’s body in a ditch off Brooklyn Road in Lincoln County and that scratches on his back indicated that he had been dragged there. Turner’s car was later found at an apartment complex inPine Bluff; blood was found on the trunk and bumper.

Thornton was identified as a suspect, and a search of his home revealed a bloodstained sock and a bloodstain on his back step and blood on a chair in the living room.

A forensic DNA analyst later testified that the blood showed a match with Turner’s DNA.

Thornton, 23, was arrested on Oct. 2, 2011, and charged with capital murder, theft of property, possession of a firearm and abuse of a corpse.

Thornton waived his right to a jury trial, and the court held a bench trial from Feb. 19-21, 2013.

Thornton’s neighbor, Vickie Jackson, testified that she was walking by hishouse, where Turner’s car was parked, on Sept. 29, 2011, when she heard a gunshot. She said Thornton came to the door and said, “Ms. Vickie, I’m OK. I just dropped my gun. It went off on the floor.”

Evidence was also presented that Thornton had written a letter, while incarcerated and awaiting trial, warning a state witness’s mother that anyone who spoke with the police or testified at trial would be harmed.

Under oath, Thornton denied seeing or talking to Jackson the day of the shooting. He denied owning a gun or killing the victim and said he’d spent the entire day in Pine Bluff, about 25 miles away.

The judge who heard Thornton’s testimony was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Thornton was guilty, but the state Supreme Court said “premeditation and deliberation” hadn’t been established.

Stephen Erickson, deputy chief medical examiner at the state Crime Laboratory, testified that Turner’s autopsy showed he had been shot once in the side of his face and that the bullet moved in a downward direction. Erickson said it was possible that Turner was sitting in a chair when he was shot, but that there were “many possible scenarios to explain the track of [the] wound,” according to the court’s opinion.

In a sentencing order signed March 4, 2013, Thornton was sentenced to life in prison without parole on the murder charge, and received 240 months in prison for possessing a firearm, 240 months in prison for abuse of a corpse and 12 months in the county jail for the unauthorized use of Turner’s vehicle.

Thornton appealed the ruling, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence for the capital-murder count but not contesting the other convictions.

Goodson wrote in a dissenting opinion that the majority was not reviewing the case in the light most favorable to the state and erred in finding that the trial court shifted the burden of proof to Thornton, adding that Thornton hadn’t made that argument on appeal. When looking at the entirety of the evidence, there is “substantial evidence supporting Thornton’s conviction for capital murder,” she wrote.

“Rather than viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, the majority impinges on the fact-finder’s province and independently determines that the state did not exclude every reasonable hypothesis but that of guilt,” Goodson wrote.

Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said in an e-mail, “We are reviewing the opinion and currently evaluating our next steps.”

Gary Potts, Thornton’s attorney in the appeal, said in a written statement that he was pleased with the court’s ruling.

“The Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision saved a young man from wrongly serving the remainder of his life in state prison without any possibility of parole. Today the state law and the appeals process worked to the benefit of its citizen, as it should,” he said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/11/2014

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