LITTLE ROCK — The state Supreme Court says it will not reconsider its rejection of an appeal by a man convicted to die for killing his estranged wife on a Fort Smith street.
Without comment, the high court on Thursday denied a petition for rehearing by Thomas Leo Springs, 49.
In March the court upheld Springs’ capital murder conviction and death sentence in the Jan. 21, 2005, stabbing death of Christina Springs.
Thomas Springs had argued that the public defenders who represented him at his trial in Sebastian County Circuit Court were ineffective in several ways, including failing to call his son as a witness during the penalty phase and failing to object to what Springs claimed were misstatements of the law by a prosecutor during closing arguments.
In its March opinion upholding Springs’ conviction, the court said Springs did not establish a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different if his public defenders had taken the actions he claimed they should have taken.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Christina Springs was riding in the front passenger seat of a car driven by her sister when Thomas Springs rammed his vehicle into the car, then got out of his vehicle, shattered the passenger window of his sister-in-law’s car and began beating his wife’s face into the dashboard.
Thomas Springs then went back to his car and retrieved a knife which he used to stab his wife repeatedly until bystanders disarmed and subdued him.
The Supreme Court rejected a previous appeal by Springs of his conviction and sentence in December 2006.
No date has been set for Springs’ execution.