AR Death Row Inmate Will Get New Lawyer
By: Jonathan Athens, KARK 4 News
Updated: November 7, 2012
A federal judge on Wednesday said he will allow an Arkansas death row inmate to have a private Little Rock attorney representing him rather than federal public defenders.
Timothy Lamont Howard, 43, was convicted of murdering his best friends, Brian and Shannon Day in 1989 and trying to kill their infant son.
He says he didn't do it and believes there is enough reasonable doubt that he deserves a new trial.
"I would like everybody to read this case from front to back, good and bad, and tell me you don't see reasonable doubt wrote all over this?" Howard said.
In a one-on-one interview with KARK News behind the walls of a maximum security prison, Howard said: "Even if you couldn't find my actual innocence, can you find my actual guilt?"
His case got the attention of Little Rock investigative journalist Mara Leveritt in 2002 when three out of four Arkansas Supreme Court Justices gave dissenting opinions on whether Howard there was enough evidence to convict him let alone warrant a death sentence.
Leveritt, a contributor to The Arkansas Times, said: "We've sentenced people to death in pretty flimsy circumstances."
Through her reporting, Leveritt discovered through court documents that contaminated DNA samples and errors were never factored into Howard's trial.
The criminal justice system has not decided on whether he will have a new trial and it has not set his execution date.
Timothy Lamont Howard, 43, was convicted of murdering his best friends, Brian and Shannon Day in 1989 and trying to kill their infant son.
He says he didn't do it and believes there is enough reasonable doubt that he deserves a new trial.
"I would like everybody to read this case from front to back, good and bad, and tell me you don't see reasonable doubt wrote all over this?" Howard said.
In a one-on-one interview with KARK News behind the walls of a maximum security prison, Howard said: "Even if you couldn't find my actual innocence, can you find my actual guilt?"
His case got the attention of Little Rock investigative journalist Mara Leveritt in 2002 when three out of four Arkansas Supreme Court Justices gave dissenting opinions on whether Howard there was enough evidence to convict him let alone warrant a death sentence.
Leveritt, a contributor to The Arkansas Times, said: "We've sentenced people to death in pretty flimsy circumstances."
Through her reporting, Leveritt discovered through court documents that contaminated DNA samples and errors were never factored into Howard's trial.
The criminal justice system has not decided on whether he will have a new trial and it has not set his execution date.
