Collins v. State

George Rose Smith, Justice.

The appellant, Carl Albert Collins, was convicted of a capital felony, the murder of John Welch, and was sentenced by the jury to death by electrocution. The principal issue is the validity of Act 438 of 1973, which reinstated the death penalty after the decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). Ark. Stat. Ann., Title 41, ,Ch. 47 (Supp. 1973). We find the statute to be constitutional.

John and Gertrude Welch, an elderly couple who had been married for 54 years, were living at the time of the crime in a rural home in Washington county. Carl Collins, aged 20,…