Lawyers argue resentencing options for teen killer Segerstrom

 Christopher S. Segerstrom
Christopher S. Segerstrom

FAYETTEVILLE -- Prosecutors and defense attorneys differed Wednesday on whether a man sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for a murder he committed as a teenager should be entitled to a new sentencing hearing.

Christopher S. Segerstrom was 15 on July 26, 1986, when he took four-year-old Barbara Thompson into a wooded area behind the Lewis Plaza Apartments several blocks west of the University of Arkansas. He sexually assaulted her before bashing her head with a rock and suffocating her. Segerstrom had promised to help the child catch butterflies.

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Supreme Court ruling prompted sentencing changes

A divided U.S. Supreme Court said in January an earlier ruling that struck down automatic life terms with no chance of parole for teen murderers should be applied retroactively. The ruling means inmates convicted years ago must be considered for parole or given a new sentence. The court’s ruling came in the case of Henry Montgomery, who has been in prison since 1963 for killing a sheriff’s deputy in Baton Rouge, La. Montgomery was 17 at the time. The decision doesn’t bar judges from sentencing teen killers to life in prison, but the court has said life sentences for teens should be rare, and only used in the worst cases. The court’s ruling could affect more than 1,000 prison inmates across the country who were involved in murders while they were teens. Some of those inmates have been behind bars more than 50 years. Last June, Lincoln County Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis vacated the sentences of 56 inmates in Arkansas who were minors when they were sentenced to life without parole.

Source: Staff report

Segerstrom, 45, was convicted of capital murder.

The U.S. and Arkansas Supreme courts have since ruled juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole, and Arkansas changed its law this year to allow life with the possibility of parole after 30 years in order to comply with the ruling.

Matt Durrett, Washington County prosecutor, contended in an earlier motion that the new state law applies to Segerstrom and that he should be re-sentenced. Segerstrom would be immediately eligible for parole, but any decision on his release would be up to the state Post-Prison Transfer Board to decide, not the circuit court.

Kent McLemore, one of Segerstrom's attorneys, said Wednesday he plans to file a response next week arguing the new state law does not preclude a new sentencing hearing for Segerstrom.

Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay sided with prosecutors last week in a similiar case involving James Dean Vancleave.

Lindsay set a hearing for Wedensday in Segerstrom's case.

Vancleave, 55, of Springdale was convicted of capital murder for killing 23-year-old Debra King. Vancleave was 16 when he killed King.

Vancleave's attorney, Mark Freeman, argued last week his client was unjustly sentenced and should be ordered released immediately. Lindsay rejected that argument and resentenced Vancleave to the maximum of life with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.

A third man sentenced in Washington County to life without parole as a teenager was ordered released last fall because in that case no valid sentencing options were available.

Dennis Wayne Lewis, 59, of Wichita, Kan., was convicted of capital murder and assault with intent to rob.

Lindsay signed an order in October that Lewis' sentence remain vacated, and he was immediately discharged from the Arkansas Department of Correction.

Lewis' case was unusual among the 56 Arkansas cases in which juvenile life sentences have been vacated, according to his attorneys, L. Gray Dellinger and Larry Kissee. They maintained because state statutes were overturned as unconstitutional, no sentencing options are available to the court based on state law in effect at the time Lewis committed his crime.

Durrett said he and others, including the state Attorney General's Office studied the issue and, reluctantly, came to the conclusion Lewis' lawyers were correct.

NW News on 04/27/2017

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