January 14, 20214:28 pm
In a brief order today, the Arkansas Supreme Court granted the state of Arkansas’s petition to prevent Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen from hearing a capital case.
The Supreme Court ordered Griffen off capital cases in 2017 following his participation in a demonstration outside the Governor’s Mansion. But he was assigned a murder case last fall under a new court case distribution plan and refused the prosecutor’s request to have the case reassigned. The prosecutor said he didn’t object to Griffen hearing capital cases but was bound to request the transfer by the Supreme Court’s earlier order.
Photo: Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Shawn Womack of Mountain Home (right) swears in Johnnie Copeland of Mountain Home as circuit court judge in a recent ceremony.
Justice Shawn Womack of the Arkansas Supreme Court presided over the swearing-in ceremony of Circuit Judge Johnnie Copeland on Jan. 1. Judge Copeland succeeds Judge Gordon Webb, who retired after a long and distinguished career in public service as both a prosecuting attorney and circuit judge.
Judge Copeland has practiced law in Mountain Home since 2006 and served as a deputy prosecuting attorney for the 14th Judicial District since 2015. In 2017, she was appointed Fulton County district judge by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Judge Copeland will be hearing civil and domestic cases filed in Baxter, Boone, Newton and Marion counties.
(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.
Supreme Court again reverses murder conviction, this time for courthouse campaigning by the prosecutor
December 17, 202011:59 am
REBUKED: Prosecutor Stephanie Barrett and Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson were blistered in a Supreme Court ruling today. Photo from her Facebook page.
Electioneering by the Miller County Prosecuting Attorney
Stephanie Barrett has resulted in the reversal of the third trial of a
first-degree murder charge against Marvin Stanton.
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The court also sent a reproof to judges who’ve politicked with jury pools or allowed it, as happened in this case heard by
Judge Kirk Johnson.
Stanton was convicted and sentenced to life for shooting Jesse Hamilton during an argument outside a Texarkana gas station. The conviction was reversed on a direct appeal and then a mistrial was declared in his second trial. He was convicted at a third trial, but the Supreme Court today ordered a fourth trial because of the prosecutor’s improper campaigning during th