An Arkansan who spent nearly 14 years with a warrant out for his arrest in a West Memphis slaying is free from having to face a charge of capital murder after the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the state.
In a unanimous decision, the justices threw out the case after ruling that state attorneys failed to raise a significant issue for the state's highest court to consider. The appeal sought to reverse a Crittenden County judge's ruling that dismissed the charge and said that officials violated Robert Canada's right to due process by waiting more than a decade to notify him he was wanted for the crime.
Authorities in West Memphis issued a warrant for Canada on Aug. 3, 2000, in the death of Derrick Price earlier that summer. Since then, Canada has spent most of his life in and out of prison in Tennessee and Arkansas on unrelated charges. County authorities said they were unable to serve Canada with a warrant while he was locked up across the Mississippi River.
Officials caught up with Canada in June 2014 after he was arrested in Crittenden County on a burglary charge. The next day he was served the warrant for capital murder.
Even though there is no statute of limitations for capital murder in Arkansas, Butler Bernard, Canada's lawyer, said in a lower-court hearing that the delay amounted to a violation of Canada's constitutional right to due process.
Matthew Coe, the deputy prosecutor for Crittenden County, argued before the lower court that local officials did all they could trying to inform prison officials in Tennessee that Canada and another suspect in Price's death, Bernard Johnson, faced murder charges in Arkansas.
Canada and Johnson were arrested on unrelated robbery charges in Chattanooga, Tenn., about two weeks after Price's slaying. Canada and Johnson then went to different county jails, according to court records.
While in jail in Tennessee, Canada was interviewed twice by West Memphis police before the warrant was issued. Police faxed a copy of the warrant to authorities in Tennessee asking them to place a hold on Canada.
"Whether or not a Sheriff's Department in Chattanooga, Tennessee does their job is not the fault of the arresting agency," Coe told the court in 2015, according to a transcript.
Canada pleaded guilty to the robbery charge in Tennessee. He was released from prison in 2011 and returned to Arkansas. Johnson remains in prison in Florida.
Because Canada was already in Tennessee's custody when his warrant was issued in 2000, West Memphis police didn't add the warrant to state and national crime systems, which resulted in Canada's name not showing up upon subsequent arrests in Arkansas after his release from prison.
In his 2015 ruling, Crittenden County Circuit Judge Ralph Wilson dismissed the case, saying the "stale warrant" had violated Canada's right to a fair trial. The state appealed, arguing there was no evidence county officials intended to hold up Canada's case or that the delay harmed his ability to mount a defense.
The Supreme Court opinion, written by Chief Justice Howard Brill, did not make a decision on the state's argument that Canada's rights were not actually violated. Instead, Brill wrote that the "unique facts and circumstances" of the case did not address a broad enough legal question to reverse Wilson's previous ruling.
Canada's lawyers and the Crittenden County prosecutor could not be reached for comment. In a statement, a spokesman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge expressed disappointment in the decision.
"It is unfortunate, especially for the victims and their families, that this capital murder offense will not be prosecuted and justice carried out," the statement said.
Canada is currently in Missouri serving an unrelated five-year sentence for theft.
Metro on 09/23/2016