Thomas Conan Ortega v. State of Arkansas

Summary

The court affirmed Ortega’s rape conviction and life sentence, holding that substantial evidence supported conviction under both forcible-compulsion and physically-helpless theories. It also affirmed the trial court’s refusal to submit interrogatories because Ortega did not support that argument with authority or a convincing legal argument, so the court declined to reach its merits. Justice Goodson concurred in the judgment, while Justices Danielson and Hart dissented and would have reversed and remanded for a new trial on the verdict-form issue.