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Death-row inmate wins new sentencing hearing Friday, May 30, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the capital murder conviction of a death-row inmate, but ruled that the man should not have been convicted of aggravated robbery for trying to recover money lost in a card game. The state's highest court overturned Michael B. Daniels' aggravated robbery conviction and ordered a new sentencing hearing. Daniels was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery in the Jan. 8, 2006, stabbing death of James Williams, 52, at a convenience store in Warren. According to testimony and videotape presented at Daniels' trial in Bradley County Circuit Court, Daniels stabbed Williams at least three times while the men fought following a card game. Defense attorneys said Daniels became angry after Williams cheated him in a game of three-card monte. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Williams cheated in the game. Daniels, now 47, argued on appeal that he should not have been convicted of aggravated robbery because he was trying not to rob Williams but to take back $20 he lost in a card game. He cited the state Supreme Court's ruling in the 1940 case Davidson v. State that a person cannot be convicted of robbery for trying to retake money lost gambling. The Supreme Court agreed, reversing the robbery conviction and ruling that Daniels should be sentenced again on the capital murder conviction. The court noted that at Daniels' first sentencing, the aggravated robbery conviction was presented as an aggravating circumstance to support a sentence of death by lethal injection. "Because evidence does not exist for an aggravating circumstance based on murder for pecuniary gain as opposed to murder perpetrated in an attempt to recover losses, the finding of this aggravating circumstance must fail," Justice Robert Brown wrote for the court. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Tom Glaze said it should have been left up to the jury to decide whether Daniels was trying to recover a gambling debt. In another dissenting opinion, Justice Jim Gunter said the 68-year-old ruling in Davidson v. State should be reversed because it "undercuts the noble purpose of our judicial system." |
