Booker v. State

Ray Thornton, Justice.

Appellant, Lajarrette Booker, was convicted of the murder of Dorothy Byers, a school teacher at Blytheville West Junior High School. On May 20, 1996, after Ms. Byers failed to return to work following her lunch break and did not pick her son up from his after-school care, a coworker went to Ms. Byers’s home to investigate the situation. The co-worker found Ms. Byers stabbed to death in her home.

Having been convicted of two prior rapes, appellant received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole pursuant to the habitual-offender statute, Ark. Code…