LITTLE ROCK — A lawyer for an Arkansas death row inmate is challenging the DNA analysis that led to his conviction in a double murder more than a decade ago.
One of Timothy Howard’s lawyers asked the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday for a new trial or at least a new hearing.
Howard was convicted in 1999 in the slayings of husband and wife Brian and Shanon Day in southwest Arkansas’ Little River County.
Howard was sentenced to death. His attorneys say prosecutors relied on faulty DNA evidence to win a conviction. His lawyers say there wasn’t a confession, eyewitness, murder weapon or any evidence placing Howard at the scenes of the crimes.
Attorneys for the state noted that the Arkansas Supreme Court has previously upheld his capital murder convictions and death sentence.