JACKSON - Two death row inmates asked the Mississippi Supreme Court for new trials in separate arguments before justices Tuesday.
There was no indication when the high court might rule on the appeals.
Condemned inmate Stephen Elliott Powers, convicted of capital murder in 2000 in Forrest County in the shooting death of Elizabeth Lafferty, argued prosecutors failed to prove the underlying felony of attempted rape.
In Mississippi, capital murder is murder in connection with another felony, and a jury can order the convicted person put to death.
Prosecutors said Lafferty was shot five times, three times in the back of the head as she fought off Powers, who was trying to rape her.
Hattiesburg attorney Michael Adelman told justices that the prosecution's reliance on photographs of the dead woman proved nothing.
"I don't see how those pictures are no different than testimony of how the body was found," Adelman told the justices. "How is that attempted rape? How does that show he moved toward her in an attempt to rape her?"
Adelman said jurors should have been told they could find Powers guilty of the lesser charge of murder if they didn't believe the attempted rape occurred. Murder carries a maximum life sentence.
Assistant Attorney General Judy Martin said testimony from experts concluded the condition of Lafferty's body and its position when she was found supported the attempted rape charge.
"The defendant admitted to the police he killed the victim and left her body in the condition it was found," Martin said.
In the other capital murder case, Columbus attorney Gary Goodwin said death row inmate Eddie Lee Howard Jr.'s Lowndes County trial was tainted by comments of a judge who sent jurors back for more deliberations.
Howard, whose 1994 capital murder conviction and death sentence was thrown out, was convicted a second time in 2000. He was again sentenced to death.
The body of 82-year-old Georgia Kemp, who was stabbed twice in the chest, was found by Columbus firefighters when they answered a call to her house in 1992. A bloody butcher knife was found near the body.
Kemp's ankles were bound with nylon stockings and authorities found evidence that she had been raped, including a bite mark on her body, according to the court record.
The court record showed jurors came out with a sentencing verdict, but when asked by the trial judge if they were in agreement, one juror said no.
Goodwin claimed the trial judge sternly reminded jurors that they must be unanimous and ordered them to continue deliberations.
Goodwin said the comment was tantamount to a new jury instruction and put pressure on the jury to come back with a death sentence. Otherwise, he said, Howard should have been given a life sentence because the jury was deadlocked.
Assistant Attorney General Judy Martin said the trial judge acted within his discretion.
"The jury was not in agreement for the moment," Martin told the justices. "They were not hopelessly deadlocked."
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