Facts of the Crime:
On October 27, 1989, Coulter was convicted by the Ashley County Circuit Court of capital murder and sentenced to death for killing a five-year-old girl during the course of, or in furtherance of, raping her.
Facts of the Crime:
On October 27, 1989, Coulter was convicted by the Ashley County Circuit Court of capital murder and sentenced to death for killing a five-year-old girl during the course of, or in furtherance of, raping her.
Basic Information
DOB: 12/01/1959
Race: White
Gender: Male
Crime and Trial Information
* County of conviction: Ashley
* Number of counts: One
* Race of Victim: White
* Gender of Victim: Female
* Date of crime: 04/12/1989
* Date of Sentencing: 10/27/1989
Legal Status
Current Proceedings:
Habeas petition pending in Western District Ark.
Attorney
Deb Czuba
Court Opinions
Coulter v. State, 804 S.W.2d 348 (Ark.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 829 (1991); Coulter v. State, 13 S.W.3d 171 (Ark. 2000) (belated appeal); Coulter v. State, 31 S.W.3d 826 (Ark. 2000) (affirming denial of post‐conviction relief); Coulter v. State, 219 S.W.3d 122 (Ark. 2005) (denying federal defender's motion to appear on behalf of Coulter); Coulter v. State, 227 S.W.3d 904 (Ark.) (denying motion to recall the mandate), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 858 (2006); Coulter v. Arkansas,549 U.S. 1072 (2006) (denying petition for rehearing).
Legal Issues
In post‐conviction proceedings:
(1) whether trial counsel's failure to interview and call as mitigation witnesses two brothers of Mr. Coulter, whowould have testified that he was repeatedly sexually abused as a child and had a history of mental illness, constituted ineffective assistance of counsel
(2) whether counsel's failure to obtain serology report from state crime laboratory was ineffective assistance ofcounsel; and
(3) whether counsel's failure to secure prior mental health records (defendant was previously diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic) was ineffective assistance of counsel.
July 27, 2013
Edit
By Patty Wooten
Seark Today
Roger Coulter, the state’s longest-serving death row inmate, has been on death row nearly half of his life. Coulter, now 53, was convicted in October 1989 of the rape and murder of a 5-year-old Bradley County girl.
Coulter was was living with the child and her mother in Warren on April 12, 1989 when he was supposed to have taken the girl to the local Headstart center.
She never arrived.
When Coulter failed to return the child from Headstart later that day, her family filed a missing-person report. Responding to reports that Coulter’s vehicle had been seen near a power line cut in Bradley County, police officers began a search of that area. The child’s body was discovered the following day in a wooded area near the power line cut.
The child’s partially clothed body was found stuffed inside a hollow tree and covered by branches and leaves. She had been raped, suffocated and strangled. The state medical examiner would later testify that there was evidence that the child had been penetrated with a foreign object and her injuries were among the worst he had ever seen.
Coulter was arrested in California five weeks after the murder.
In a change of venue, an Ashley County jury found Coulter guilty of rape and capital murder and sentenced him to die by lethal injection.
Among Coulter’s numerous claims on appeal was that his attorney was ineffective, that he failed to discover records that Coulter had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic while he was incarcerated in Arizona. However, Coulter’s attorney had used his own personal funds to hire an independent psychologist to examine his client.
The psychologist testified that Coulter had a history of mental problems and had been treated in the past with medication. He said Coulter, while in a special-treatment unit in the Arizona prison system, was administered medication for his aggressive and explosive behavior.
The psychologist said Coulter was also treated at a California mental-health center where he responded well to medication. However, once he was released from that facility, he failed to continue with the treatment on his own. Ultimately, the psychologist diagnosed Coulter as having antisocial personality disorder and a pattern of heavy alcohol abuse.
The state Supreme Court said Coulter failed to show how his attorney’s failure to discover any record of him having been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic prejudiced his trial. Coulter merely claimed that had his attorney obtained the Arizona records, he would have been able to secure funds to hire an independent psychiatrist to evaluate his mental state. The court said that was a moot point because when the trial court denied Coulter’s request for funds for an independent evaluation, Coulter’s attorney used his own money to for the evaluation.
Coulter subsequently filed a mental retardation claim.
A psychiatrist testified at Coulter’s Ashley County trial that Coulter scored a 94 on his IQ test. Neither the psychiatrist nor the psychologist hired by Coulter’s defense attorney alluded to a diagnosis of mental retardation at trial, and it was never presented as mitigating evidence. Moreover, his IQ of 94 is substantially higher than the statutory threshold of 65, according to the state Supreme Court.
http://searktoday.com/2013/07/27/death-row/
On March 31, 2015, Coulter's habeas petition was DENIED in Federal District Court.
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...v01125/344/173
On February 25, 2016, Coulter filed an appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ci...ts/ca8/16-1488
On January 12, 2017, oral argument will be heard in Coulter's appeal before the Eighth Circuit. The panel will be made up of Judges Colloton (G.W. Bush), Gruender (G.W. Bush) and Kelly (Obama).
http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/webcal/jan17stl.pdf
In today's opinions, the Eighth Circuit DENIED Coulter's appeal. Judge Kelly dissented.
http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/17/09/161488P.pdf
Looks like AR may be able to bag a few more in the coming years now.
Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.
"They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters
Arkansas death row inmate dies after being found unresponsive in cell
GRADY, Ark. (KATV) — An Arkansas death row inmate was pronounced dead minutes after he was found unresponsive in his cell at the Varner Unit, the Arkansas Department of Correction states.
ADC spokesperson Solomon Graves says inmate Roger Coulter was found by a correctional officer Friday at approximately 6:28 p.m.
He was pronounced dead nearly 40 minutes later.
Coulter was sentenced to death for capital murder by an Ashley County jury back in 1989.
http://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-...onsive-in-cell
He was so close to getting a date, its a shame that justice was denied in this case.
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