High court hears challenge from death-row inmate

— A lawyer for an Arkansas death-row inmate says the prisoner deserves a new hearing because of ineffective legal counsel leading up to his conviction and sentence.

Brandon Eugene Lacy’s lawyer, Patrick Benca, told the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday that there were issues about Lacy’s mental health that should have been brought up at trial.

An attorney for the state disagreed.

Lacy was sentenced to death in the slaying of 47-year-old Randall Walker. Walker’s burned body was found in 2007.

Prosecutors say Lacy hit Walker on the head with a fireplace poker, stabbed him in the chest with a knife and then used gasoline and a lighter to set fire to his mobile home.

The high court did not say when it would issue a ruling on the case.

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