Court Opinion

ID: 9683454
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:29:05.956149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:47.985180
License: Public Domain

Ray Thornton, Justice, dissenting. Bruce Earl Ward has been convicted of capital murder. The only remaining issue is whether the penalty for that crime should be life imprisonment without parole, or death. In the original appeal, Ward v. State, 308 Ark. 415, 827 S.W.2d 110 (1992) (Ward I), we remanded the case for resentencing because we found that the State committed reversible error by introducing unproven allegations of other crimes during the sentencing phase of the trial. In Ward I, the offending evidence was presented by way of a document, specifically, Exhibit 18, attached to a Pennsylvania conviction of voluntary manslaughter. That exhibit suggested the possibility of other crimes that Ward was neither charged with nor convicted of committing. In this case, the tainting material was presented in testimony. In Ward I, we stated that, “We agree with appellant that the admission of these unsubstantiated allegations was prejudicial error in the penalty phase of the trial.” Id. Because I believe that the State made the same error during this resentencing hearing, I respectfully dissent and suggest that the State be required to conduct a resentencing hearing for the purpose of presenting evidence of the Pennsylvania crime of voluntary manslaughter without enhancing it with evidence that suggests, but does not prove, an additional crime that Ward was not charged with committing. I respectfully dissent.