The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday rejected claims by a prison inmate that his sentence was invalid because it exceeded the maximum sentence for the crime that was designated on his arrest warrant.
Abraham Grant, 47, was found guilty of Capital murder and first-degree battery in Phillips County in 2003 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Evidence at trial indicated that Grant entered the apartment of his mother-in-law Rosetta Pittman and fatally shot her and wounded a niece who was close by when Grant fired his gun. Before she died, Pittman identified Grant as the person who shot her.
Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Dan Kemp said Grant has not cited any authority or developed sound arguments for the prosecutor’s decision to alter the charge on the arrest warrant from first-degree murder to capital murder and Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis, who heard the Grant’s appeal, did not err in denying and dismissing it.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday rejected claims by a prison inmate that his sentence was invalid because it exceeded the maximum sentence for the crime that was designated on his arrest warrant.
Abraham Grant, 47, was found guilty of Capital murder and first-degree battery in Phillips County in 2003 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Evidence at trial indicated that Grant entered the apartment of his mother-in-law Rosetta Pittman and fatally shot her and wounded a niece who was close by when Grant fired his gun. Before she died, Pittman identified Grant as the person who shot her.
Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Dan Kemp said Grant has not cited any authority or developed sound arguments for the prosecutor’s decision to alter the charge on the arrest warrant from first-degree murder to capital murder and Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis, who heard the Grant’s appeal, did not err in denying and dismissing it.
