(CN) An Arkansas man will be tried a fourth time for murder after the state’s high court on Thursday overturned his latest conviction because of the prosecutor’s campaign activities during trial, which it found to be an “abuse and exploitation of the judicial system.”
“This kind of conduct has no place in the administration of justice and should not have been permitted,” Justice Shawn Womack wrote in the ruling. “The circuit court should have dealt promptly with the prosecutor’s improper campaigning in the courthouse during trial.”
(Courthouse News photo/Kelsey Jukam)
A state jury sentenced Marvin Stanton to life in prison last year for the 2015 murder of Jesse Hamilton following an altercation over a gas station parking spot. Prosecutors claimed Stanton, riding a motorcycle, initiated a verbal and physical altercation with Hamilton, which they say ended when Stanton pulled a handgun from his waistband and shot the 22-year-old victim to death.