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Thread: Timothy Wayne Kemp - Arkansas Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    State justices review killing

    Prisoner claims prosecution withheld evidence in 1994

    By Stephen Simpson
    Arkansas Online

    The Arkansas Supreme Court opened its fall term in its 187th year with oral arguments in a 27-year-old murder case in which four people were killed in a Pulaski County mobile home.

    The plaintiff, death row prisoner Timothy Wayne Kemp, applied last year to his case returned to Pulaski County Circuit Court. The application, written by Assistant Federal Public Defender Julie Vandiver, states that evidence was withheld from Kemp and only released upon federal court order that corroborated his claim to have been threatened with a gun prior to shooting his own weapon.

    Vandiver argued the jurors in Kemp's case sentenced him to death after the state convinced them he killed the four in a rage induced by a lover's quarrel.

    She said the jury never heard the evidence because the prosecutors suppressed it and it showed Kemp reacted to armed threats. If the jury heard this evidence, Vandiver said it likely would not have convicted Kemp of capital murder, or at the very least would not have sentenced him to death.

    "Prosecutors sat silently and let the lie continue," she said during oral arguments that were held using teleconferencing software because of the covid-19 pandemic.

    In 1993, police found the bodies of David Wayne Helton, Robert "Sonny" Phegley, Cheryl Phegley and Richard "Bubba" Falls in a Jacksonville mobile home. All four were shot, all but Falls more than once. A surviving victim, Becky Mahoney, was shot but hid in a bedroom closet.

    Mahoney later identified her boyfriend, Kemp, as the killer.

    In 1994, Kemp was convicted of four counts of capital murder and sentenced to death on each count. The Arkansas Supreme Court in 1996 overturned three of the death sentences, but Kemp was resentenced to death in 1997.

    Kemp filed multiple claims in state and federal courts that would be dismissed, but Vandiver said that during the federal trial, Kemp received never-before-disclosed parts of the prosecutor's file that could have changed the case.

    Vandiver said the prosecutor's story that Kemp murdered people in cold blood in response to a fight with his girlfriend was only possible through the suppression of evidence. She said the prosecutor hid evidence that supported Kemp's claim that the victims pulled a gun on him first.

    "Wayne was planning on a confrontation," she said. "He didn't sneak up on these people. They were planning for him to come back. Helton planned to use that gun to threaten Tim."

    Vandiver said Kemp raises four apparently meritorious claims: that Helton had a gun and planned to use it to scare Kemp; a rifle was removed from the crime scene; Mahoney, assisted by the prosecution, received emergency psychiatric treatment during the trial; and the prosecution suppressed evidence that would have impeached witness Bill Stuckey.

    Justice Courtney Hudson said she was concerned by the lack of urgency Kemp had shown to present his case to the state Supreme Court, but instead appealed to federal court.

    Since this was a death penalty case, Vandiver said Kemp was entitled to try that option and he was concerned that coming before the state court once again would have risked federal review by creating an exhaustion of options situation.

    Assistant Attorney General Kent Holt said the amount of time that had passed while Kemp was appealing in federal court was reason enough to dismiss the application. He said Kemp is circling back to state court now because he didn't like the answer he received in federal court.

    "Federal courts are generally designed to channel the fact findings to state court," Holt said. "Kemp was aware of this in 2014. They told him that he had available state remedy but he took his chances with a second amendment petition in federal court."

    Hudson said it appears that Kemp made a different strategic choice, but it was his choice.

    "The case wasn't necessarily languishing," she said. "They were doing something, they just weren't doing it in state court."

    Holt also argued claims made by Kemp would have made no difference in the case.

    "The evidence in this case was the physical evidence," he said. "There were 12 spent shell casings and 12 bullet wounds in the victims. Every shot fired found a living breathing human being. There was no evidence that any other shot was fired."

    Hudson said the argument was about the accumulation of evidence that was made unaware to the defense.

    "Mr. Stuckey's criminal history was more serious than presented, the lack of candor in Becky's statement and when you add all these things up it's death by a thousand cuts," she said.

    Holt argued that photos at the crime scene never showed a rifle and that Mahoney's mental state wouldn't have been beneficial to the defense.

    "The victim witness unit was there to help a person who had witnessed the slaughter of four people," he said. "It would have been very favorable to the prosecution to show the impact on Mahoney had been."

    Vandiver, when asked about how the self-defense argument would play out when one of the victims was shot in the back, mentioned this wasn't the crux of their stance.

    "I am not sure the jury would acquit him all of these four murders, but it does undermine the capital murder charge," she said. "The evidence speaks more to Kemp's mindset at the time. Testimony shows that he shot off his gun as part of provocation."

    https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/...eview-killing/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #12
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    Inmate rejected in bid to remand his murder case

    Court: Same verdict likely

    By Stephen Simpson
    Arkansas Democrat Gazette

    A petition by a death row prisoner to have his case returned to Pulaski County Circuit Court was denied Thursday by the Arkansas Supreme Court, which stated in documents that the additional evidence at issue wouldn't have resulted in a different trial outcome.

    Timothy Wayne Kemp applied last year to have his case returned to the trial court. The request, written by Assistant Federal Public Defender Julie Vandiver, stated that evidence was withheld from Kemp and only released upon federal court order. The petition said the evidence corroborated Kemp's claim that he was threatened with a gun before shooting his own weapon.

    Vandiver argued that the jurors in Kemp's case sentenced him to death after the state convinced them he killed four people in a rage induced by a lover's quarrel.

    She said the jury never heard the evidence -- which she contended showed Kemp reacted to armed threats -- because the prosecutors suppressed it.

    If jurors heard this evidence, Vandiver said, they likely would not have convicted Kemp of capital murder or, at the very least, not sentenced him to death.

    The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday declined Kemp's request to reinvest jurisdiction in the circuit court under the writ of error coram nobis -- that is, a request to return to the lower court to present evidence that was omitted in the original trial. The high court heard oral arguments in the matter Sept 12.

    "Contrary to Kemp's view, there is no reasonable probability that disclosure of the evidence to the defense would have resulted in a different outcome. As a result, the proposed attack on judgment is wholly without merit," the high court stated in its ruling.

    In 1993, police found the bodies of David Wayne Helton, Robert "Sonny" Phegley, Cheryl Phegley and Richard "Bubba" Falls in a Jacksonville mobile home. All four were shot, all but Falls more than once. A surviving victim, Becky Mahoney, was shot but hid in a bedroom closet.

    Mahoney later identified her boyfriend, Kemp, as the killer.

    In 1994, Kemp was convicted of four counts of capital murder and sentenced to death on each count. The Arkansas Supreme Court in 1996 overturned three of the death sentences, but Kemp was resentenced to death in 1997.

    Kemp filed multiple claims in state and federal courts that were dismissed, but according to Vandiver, during a federal hearing, Kemp received never-before-disclosed parts of the prosecutor's file that could have changed the outcome of the case.

    Vandiver said the prosecutor's story that Kemp murdered people in cold blood in response to a fight with his girlfriend was only possible through the suppression of evidence. She said the prosecutor hid evidence that supported Kemp's claim that the victims pulled a gun on him first.

    Vandiver said Kemp raises four meritorious claims: that Helton had a gun and planned to use it to scare Kemp; a rifle was removed from the crime scene; Mahoney, assisted by the prosecution, received emergency psychiatric treatment during the trial; and the prosecution suppressed evidence that would have impeached witness Bill Stuckey, who wasn't present at the scene of the crime but talked to Kemp afterward.

    The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the outcome of the trial would not have been changed because of the alleged failure of the prosecution to disclose that Helton, one of the victims, showed Mahoney "a pistol and told her that he planned to use it to scare Kemp should he return" after he left the mobile home.

    The second claim was denied due to the fact that even if a rifle was somewhere in the trailer, there was no evidence to support the claim that it was present during the crime or used to threaten Kemp at any time.

    The court also stated that the evidence of Mahoney's trauma would have actually been helpful to the state's victim impact case and if the records had been used to cast doubt on her, there was no reasonable chance that the records would have resulted in a different outcome given the overwhelming evidence of guilt.

    Lastly, the court stated the disclosure of the collateral details surrounding Stuckey's criminal convictions would not have created a reasonable probability that the jury would have reached a different conclusion during the resentencing trial.

    https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/...s-murder-case/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court DENIED Kemp's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Arkansas
    Case Numbers: (CR-95-549)
    Decision Date: October 7, 2021

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...22zor_hgcj.pdf

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