Ex Parte Locke

Petitioner, Edward Locke, was tried before a jury and convicted of murder during the course of an arson. Code of Alabama (1975), § 13A-5-40(a)(9). He was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction with a written opinion. Locke v. State, 527 So.2d 1343 (Ala.Crim.App. 1987). This Court granted certiorari to address the issue of whether there exists a conflict between the Court of Criminal Appeals' statement of the corpus delicti of arson in its opinion below and the statement of the arson corpus delicti in prior decisions…