Randy L. Anderson v. State of Arkansas

Summary

The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed Randy Anderson's capital-murder conviction but reversed his death sentence and remanded for resentencing because the record contained no signed or filed Form 2, leaving no written proof that the jury considered any mitigating circumstances as Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-603 requires. The court held that a prosecutor's clear and unequivocal shift of the burden of proof during voir dire is reviewable without a contemporaneous objection under the third Wicks exception, but concluded the prosecutor's remarks here were not flagrant enough to require intervention or reversal; it also rejected the ineffective-assistance and Witherspoon claims as unpreserved, affirmed refusal of the no-retreat 'dwelling' instruction, and upheld the especially-cruel aggravating circumstance on the mental-anguish evidence. Justice Thornton concurred in part and dissented in part, agreeing with the resentencing reversal but voting to reverse the conviction for a new trial because the burden-shifting was serious error the trial court should have corrected; Justices Glaze and Hannah concurred, agreeing no reversible error occurred on the burden-shifting point but criticizing the majority's categorical Wicks-three analysis as unnecessary dicta.