Court Overturns Murder Conviction
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
A federal appeals court is overturning the
murder conviction of a Piggott man blamed for the death of his
girlfriend`s two-year-old daughter.
The decision gives David Reagan assurance that he will remain
free for now. Prosecutors could decide to try him again.
Reagan served 13 years of a life sentence for a first-degree
murder conviction in the 1989 death of Sarah Binkard before he was
released from prison last year after U-S District Judge Susan
Webber Wright ruled his conviction was unconstitutional.
Wright said the trial judge shouldn`t have allowed Reagan`s
lawyer to also represent the girlfriend, a co-defendant in the
case. The state appealed.
A three-judge panel of the Eighth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals
refused to consider the state`s appeal. Instead, it sided with
Reagan in his own appeal on another aspect of the case, saying a
jury instruction could have prejudiced the jury.
The appeals court gave prosecutors 120 days to retry Reagan.
Posted by Mike Hellgren
