DOVER, Del. — The attorney for a Delaware man accused in a 1967 Arkansas killing says his client is being held illegally as he fights extradition.
In court papers filed this week, the public defender for James Leon Clay of Georgetown said Clay was arrested March 10 and has been incarcerated beyond the permitted 30 days, with no extension sought by or granted to state authorities.
In arguing that Clay should be released from custody, his attorney also says an Arkansas sheriff's affidavit seeking an arrest warrant is not validly sworn because the space for a notary's signature is blank.
The 67-year-old Clay is the subject of an Arkansas warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 27-year-old James Ricks, whose skeletal remains were found in August 1967.