A Batesville man who pleaded guilty 38 years ago to killing a neighbor will get a chance next month to try to prove what he says he now realizes -- that the woman's death wasn't the result of his actions.
U.S. District Judge Brian Miller said Thursday that he wants to give Keith Deaton, 56, the opportunity to be fully heard on his claim that he was wrongly coerced into pleading guilty by an inexperienced attorney and an autopsy report that declared the death a homicide based on incomplete information.
Deaton hopes to prove that he is innocent of the crime to which he pleaded guilty at age 18, and that he should be set free.
Last April, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis cited a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding prisoner petitions in remanding Deaton's case to Miller for a determination of whether he is "actually innocent" and entitled to relief.
In 2012, Deaton sought to present medical evidence in support of a new trial, but Miller denied the request, saying he couldn't retroactively stop the clock on the statute of limitations to allow Deaton to present his evidence after so much time had gone by. Deaton appealed, leading to the 8th Circuit's directive.
In a hearing Thursday in his chambers, Miller granted a motion from defense attorney Dana Reece to ensure that an expert witness for the defense has access, prior to the hearing, to autopsy records at the state Crime Laboratory and medical records that the state received last year from White River Medical Center in Batesville and UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock, where Linda Joan Reed was treated after Deaton hit her in the head with a hammer during a burglary of her home.
Reed, a 26-year-old mother of four, was treated at the Batesville hospital for a skull fracture and was released after 13 days. She was readmitted 10 days later and the next day was transferred to UAMS, where she died that same day, Oct. 21, 1976.
Deaton's family contends that according to Reed's medical records, she died from a urinary tract infection that was present during her first hospital stay but wasn't treated and from complications of pneumonia that she developed in the hospital, combined with an overdose of Demerol and Valium that she received in the hospital.
They say a pathologist who performed an autopsy hours after Reed died, and concluded she was murdered, was hampered by not having access to her medical records. When he reviewed the medical records years later, he concluded there were three causes of death: a "supervening cause," an "infection from hospital environment leading to pneumonia," and "probable narcotic toxicity," according to court records.
Reece objected Thursday to the state presenting evidence of her expert witness's hospital privileges being suspended in 2009 and 2010, saying it involved a "political dispute" with the hospital and had no bearing on her case. Miller said he will allow Assistant Attorney General Kelly Hill to present that information about Dr. Hisham Hashish, as well as peer review material and the fact that four malpractice suits were filed against him, three of which were settled.
Metro on 01/16/2015