Credit: LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS/Adobe Stock 8th Circuit Finds Death Row Inmate Has Standing to Sue State Officials for Allegedly Failing to Turn Over Key Evidence That Could Prove Innocence
"The defendants here are not immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment because Johnson seeks prospective declaratory and injunction relief and has alleged a sufficient connection between the defendants and Act 1780's enforcement," Judge Jane Kelly wrote on behalf of the court. "The Sevier County Prosecuting Attorney and the Director of the State Crime Lab have a sufficient connection because they possess and control evidence that Johnson seeks to test, and they have refused to provide it to him."
June 13, 2023 at 11:11 AM
6 minute read
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court's determination that a man on death row had standing to challenge Arkansas' postconviction DNA testing statute and sue the state officials who allegedly refused to test key evidence pertaining to a murder he claims he did not commit.
Stacey Johnson was on death row after he was accused of killing Carol Heath in 1993. Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death, though that decision was later reversed on appeal due to an evidentiary error. Johnson was retried in 1997 and convicted and sentenced to death again, with the Arkansas Supreme Court affirming the sentence, according to the circuit court's majority opinion.
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