NEWS (3/​21/​20): Arkansas — Arkansas cap­i­tal defen­dant Mauricio Torres will get a third tri­al in the child-abuse mur­der of his six-year-old son after a Benton County tri­al judge declared a mis­tri­al dur­ing the penal­ty-phase of his sec­ond tri­al and vacat­ed the jury’s conviction.

Judge Brad Karren declared a mis­tri­al on March 5 after pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness Quinten Martin, Torres’s step-son, attempt­ed to attack Torres in the jury’s pres­ence. The defense argued that Arkansas law required an ini­tial death sen­tence to be imposed by the same jury that ren­dered the guilt ver­dict. On March 21, Judge Karren ruled in the defense’s favor, agree­ing that a new jury could not be empan­eled for sen­tenc­ing with­out first con­sid­er­ing Torres’s guilt or innocence.

Torres was first con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in November 2016. However, the Arkansas Supreme Court over­turned that con­vic­tion because pros­e­cu­tors had improp­er­ly charged Torres with an alleged rape that had tak­en place entire­ly in Missouri and could not be tried in Arkansas.