LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal in a case involving the death penalty and a Pine Bluff victim.
The court declined to reconsider its decision that the state can seek the death penalty for the second time against Kenneth Ray Osburn, who is charged in the 2006 killing of 17-year-old Casey Crowder of Pine Bluff.
Osburn, now 51, was convicted in Crowder’s killing in 2008.
The state had sought the death penalty, but he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after one juror refused to sign the death verdict. The state Supreme Court overturned Osburn’s conviction in 2009, finding that state police investigators had continued to interrogate him without an attorney present after he asked for an attorney.
The state intends to retry the case and wants to seek the death penalty again. On Oct. 6, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state can seek the death penalty, rejecting arguments by Osburn that doing so would create double jeopardy. The high court said at the time that the jury in Osburn’s first trial had deadlocked on the question of the death penalty and therefore had made no decision on the matter.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Under Arkansas law, a jury must be unanimous in choosing to impose the death penalty. On Thursday, the court denied a petition by Osburn for rehearing. The decision was 6-1, with Justice Paul Danielson dissenting. Danielson said in his dissenting opinion that upon further reflection, he had come to the conclusion that when the jury in Osburn’s first trial failed to decided unanimously to impose the death penalty, that constituted a rejection of the death penalty.
“While I do not take great pleasure in admitting that my initial decision in this case was in error, I must,” Danielson wrote. “There is simply too much at stake in the instant case.”
Meanwhile, justices also dismissed an appeal by Karl Douglas Roberts, who is sentenced to die for the 1999 killing of 12-year-old Andria Brewer of Polk County.
Roberts, now 43, was convicted of capital murder in his niece’s death and sentenced to die in May 2000. In June 2000, Roberts signed a waiver of his right to pursue appeals.
Despite the waiver, the Supreme Court reviewed the case, as it does with all death-penalty cases, and upheld the conviction and sentence. It also affirmed Roberts’ waiver.
On Thursday, the high court dismissed an appeal by Roberts of a Polk County circuit judge’s ruling that Roberts was not entitled to a hearing on whether he received effective counsel from his attorney.
The judge ruled that the petition for the hearing was not filed in a timely manner and that Roberts had waived his right to post-conviction relief. The Supreme Court agreed with the second point and said Roberts had to file a motion to reopen post-conviction relief before he could challenge the effectiveness of his attorney.
The court dismissed the petition without prejudice, so Roberts could file it again later in the process. The court did not address the timeliness of the petition.