Local Death Row Appeal

A lawyer for a Southwest Arkansas Death Row Inmate is challenging the DNA analysis that led to his clients conviction in a double murder more than a decade ago.

One of Timothy Howard’s lawyers asked the Arkansas Supreme Court for a new trial or at least a new hearing. Howard was convicted in the 1999 killing of husband and wife Brian and Shannon Day in Little River County.

Howard was sentenced to death. His attorney says prosecutors relied on faulty DNA evidence, and that there was not a confession, eyewitness, murder weapon or any evidence placing Howard at the scene of the crime.

Attorneys for the state noted that the Arkansas Supreme Court has previously upheld hi capital murder conviction.