State v. Davis
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While on parole from a prior conviction of murder, Appellant committed murder. After a trial in 1984, a three-judge panel found Appellant guilty of aggravated murder with a prior-conviction specification and sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but vacated the death sentence, determining that the panel had improperly weighed a nonstatutory aggravating circumstance against the mitigating factors. On remand, the same three-judge panel that had originally sentenced Defendant conducted the resentencing hearing and again sentenced Defendant to death. The Supreme Court affirmed. In 2007, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted habeas relief and required that Defendant be resentenced on the ground that the panel on resentencing should have allowed Defendant to introduce mitigating evidence in addition to the mitigating evidence presented at his 1984 trial. By the time of the subsequent resentencing, none of the original panel members were on the bench. Accordingly, the trial court convened a three-panel consisting of three new members. The new panel again sentenced Defendant to death. Defendant appealed, raising five propositions of law challenging his death sentence. The Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence, holding that all five propositions of law lacked merit.
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