Steven Victor Wertz, Appellant v. State of Arkansas, Appellee

Summary

The court granted Wertz’s motion to recall the direct-appeal mandate, holding that the use of one set of penalty-phase verdict forms for two capital-murder convictions undermined the reliability and individualized nature of the death sentence. Because the court had been required to identify this sentencing defect during its independent review of the death sentence, its failure to do so constituted a breakdown in the appellate process warranting recall of the mandate. The court rejected the asserted Sixth Amendment violation because the jury, rather than the trial court, made the sentencing findings. The dissenting justices would either order briefing on a possible double-jeopardy issue or deny recall because the extraordinary circumstances required for that remedy were absent.