Summary
The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed Latavious D. Johnson’s capital-murder conviction and death sentence for the stabbing death of a correctional officer. The court held that Johnson was not entitled to an extreme-emotional-disturbance manslaughter instruction or broader discovery concerning general conditions and violence at the correctional facility, and found no reversible error on mandatory review.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the circuit court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on extreme-emotional-disturbance manslaughter under Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-10-104(a)(1).
- Whether the circuit court abused its discretion under Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 17.4 by denying discovery of records concerning general violence, security problems, misconduct, attacks, security changes, and emergency-response policies at the correctional facility.
- Whether mandatory appellate review disclosed reversible error, an unsupported aggravating circumstance, an arbitrary death sentence, or another prejudicial error.
Holdings
- The circuit court properly refused the manslaughter instruction because Johnson failed to present a factual basis or rational basis showing that he killed Ester under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance following legally sufficient provocation.
- The circuit court did not abuse its discretion in denying Johnson's requests for records concerning general violence, security problems, alleged misconduct, inmate attacks, security changes, and emergency-response policies because Johnson failed to show that the requested material was relevant and material to preparation of his defense.
- Mandatory review disclosed no reversible error, failure to consider a matter essential to the death penalty, unsupported statutory aggravating circumstance, arbitrary sentencing factor, or other prejudicial error.
Key quotations
“A defendant is not entitled to an instruction on extreme-emotional-disturbance manslaughter unless there is a factual basis showing that the defendant killed the victim “in the moment following ‘provocation in the form of physical fighting, a threat, or a brandished weapon.’”” (at 4)
“The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require that the sentencer, in all but the rarest kind of capital case, not be precluded from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant’s character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death.” (at 6)
Factual background
While Johnson was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder at the East Arkansas Regional Unit, correctional officer Barbara A. Ester approached him about wearing contraband shoes. When Ester returned with Lieutenant Steven Lane and the officers attempted to confiscate the shoes, Johnson stabbed Ester three times with a shank, and she later died at a hospital. Johnson admitted the stabbing at trial but denied intending to kill Ester, and he attributed his conduct in part to the stressful prison environment and the attempted confiscation of his shoes.
Procedural history
A Lee County jury convicted Johnson of capital murder after he stabbed correctional officer Barbara A. Ester three times in prison and sentenced him to death. The circuit court denied his requested manslaughter instruction and certain discovery requests. Because a death sentence was imposed, the appeal was automatically filed and subject to the Arkansas Supreme Court's mandatory review.