October 27 has been set for the retrial of Rickey Dale Newman, who is charged with capital murder in the 2001 mutilation death of a 46-year-old female transient.
Newman, 56, who had been on Arkansas' death row from 2002 until this past January when the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a new trial, is accused in the death of Marie Cholette at a transient camp on the edge of Van Buren.
The state's high court ruled that Newman was mentally unable to assist his attorney in the preparation of his defense in his 2002 trial in Crawford County Circuit Court.
Justices pointed to reports from doctors who examined Newman. One found that Newman was unable to think clearly and rationally; the other concluded Newman had significant cognitive deficits and brain dysfunction.
Newman was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death after a one-day jury trial in June 2002 at which Newman served as his own attorney. During the trial, Newman testified that he killed Cholette and that he wanted to be sentenced to death.
After the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence, Newman was granted a request to waive further appeals and to be executed.
But as his July 2005 execution date approached, Newman allowed federal public defender Julie Brain to file a motion to stay his execution on his behalf. With Brain representing him, he renewed the appeals of his conviction and sentence, which eventually led to the Supreme Court ordering the new trial.
Newman was returned to the Crawford County jail in May after the Arkansas State Hospital released him because, at his attorney's instruction, he would not cooperate with an attempt to perform a mental evaluation, according to court documents. Hospital officials declared Newman fit to stand trial at that time.
Crawford County Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell had ordered Newman to the state hospital in February for treatment based on the Supreme Court's ruling that he was mentally unfit to proceed to trial.
Metro on 08/09/2014