An Arkansas tri­al judge has dis­missed all charges against for­mer death-row pris­on­er, Rickey Dale Newman (pic­tured), set­ting him free on October 11 after hav­ing spent near­ly 17 years in cus­tody fol­low­ing the February 2001 mur­der of a tran­sient woman in a ​“hobo park” on the out­skirts of Van Buren, Arkansas. Newman became the 160th per­son since 1973 to be exon­er­at­ed after hav­ing hav­ing been wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. Newman, a for­mer Marine with major depres­sion, chron­ic post­trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der from child­hood abuse, and an IQ in the intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled range, was seri­ous­ly men­tal­ly ill and home­less at the time he was charged with mur­der­ing Marie Cholette. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in June 2002 after a one-day tri­al in which the court per­mit­ted him to rep­re­sent him­self. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Newman to the mur­der, but at tri­al a pros­e­cu­tion expert false­ly tes­ti­fied that hair found on Newman’s cloth­ing came from the vic­tim. Newman also told the jury he had com­mit­ted the mur­der and asked them to impose the death penal­ty. He sub­se­quent­ly sought to waive his appeals and be exe­cut­ed. The Arkansas Supreme Court ini­tial­ly held that Newman had been men­tal­ly com­pe­tent and grant­ed his request to drop his appeals. However, four days before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on July 26, 2005, Newman per­mit­ted fed­er­al pub­lic defend­ers, includ­ing his cur­rent coun­sel, Julie Brain, to seek a stay of exe­cu­tion. DNA evi­dence on the blan­ket on which the vic­tim was found exclud­ed Newman, and the fed­er­al defend­ers obtained DNA test­ing of the hair evi­dence that dis­proved the pros­e­cu­tion’s tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny. They also dis­cov­ered that pros­e­cu­tors had with­held from the defense evi­dence from the mur­der scene that con­tra­dict­ed what Newman had described in his con­fes­sion. A fed­er­al court hear­ing dis­closed that the state men­tal health doc­tor had made sig­nif­i­cant errors in admin­is­ter­ing and scor­ing tests he had relied upon for his tes­ti­mo­ny that Newman had been com­pe­tent to stand tri­al. The Arkansas Supreme Court sub­se­quent­ly ordered new hear­ings on Newman’s com­pe­ten­cy and on the evi­dence the pros­e­cu­tion had with­held from the defense. After those hear­ings, it wrote that ​“the record over­whelm­ing­ly illus­trates that Newman’s cog­ni­tive deficits and men­tal ill­ness­es inter­fered with his abil­i­ty to effec­tive­ly and ratio­nal­ly assist coun­sel” and over­turned Newman’s con­vic­tion. In September, it issued anoth­er rul­ing bar­ring the use of Newman’s incom­pe­tent con­fes­sions in any retri­al. On October 2, Brain sub­mit­ted a let­ter to the court say­ing that ​“Mr. Newman has now been incar­cer­at­ed for over 16 years for a mur­der that he did not com­mit” and that the Arkansas Supreme Court had found that the invalid state­ments he had giv­en while men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent were ​“the only mean­ing­ful evi­dence against him.” In response, spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor Ron Fields sub­mit­ted let­ter to the court ask­ing that charges be dis­missed. Fields wrote that, with­out the con­fes­sions, pros­e­cu­tors lacked suf­fi­cient evi­dence to obtain a con­vic­tion and ​“it would be a waste of tax pay­ers mon­ey to retry [Newman].”

(D. Hughes, ​“Former Arkansas death row inmate freed after 16 years in cus­tody; charges dropped in muti­la­tion case,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 12, 2017; J. Lovett, ​“Death row inmate Rickey Dale Newman walks free; 2001 mur­der charges dropped,” Southwest Times Record, October 11, 2017; K. Sherrell, ​“Arkansas Death Row Inmate Walks Free After Nearly 17 Years In Prison,” KFSM 5 News, October 11, 2017.) Read the Arkansas Supreme Court deci­sions grant­i­ng Mr. Newman an evi­den­tiary hear­ing and over­turn­ing his con­vic­tion. See Innocence, Intellectual Disability, Mental Illness, and Prosecutorial Misconduct.

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