Arkansas Supreme Court declines to order new DNA testing in death row inmate's case

Death-row inmate Stacey Johnson (left) sits with his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, as Rosenzweig addresses the Parole Board in this 2017 file photo.
Death-row inmate Stacey Johnson (left) sits with his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, as Rosenzweig addresses the Parole Board in this 2017 file photo.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday declined to order new DNA testing on several pieces of evidence that an Arkansas death row prisoner, Stacey Johnson, had argued could exonerate him.

The 5-2 decision by the high court stems from an appeal Johnson mounted in early 2017, just before he was set to be executed at the Cummins Prison. The execution was stayed in order to allow the courts to consider the matter.

Johnson was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Carol Heath in Sevier County.

Writing for the majority, Justice Shawn Womack said that even if new information came out of the testing Johnson sought -- particularly on hairs found on Heath's body -- it would not significantly outweigh other evidence linking Johnson to the crime.

"The presence of another male’s DNA could not significantly advance Johnson’s claim of innocence in light of the remaining evidence," Womack wrote. "It simply cannot explain away the DNA evidence directly linking Johnson to both crime scenes: Johnson’s saliva on the partially smoked cigarette in the pocket of the bloody green shirt at the roadside park and his hairs discovered on and around Heath’s body."

Two justices, Josephine Hart and Robin Wynne, dissented, saying they would have allowed the testing.

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