State v. Russell

Steele Hays, Justice.

This interlocutory appeal by the state is the second time this case has been before us. Appellee Russell was tried on April 16 and 17, 1979, and convicted of first degree murder. A material witness for the state was unable to attend the trial due to illness, and the trial court permitted his video-taped deposition to be used in evidence, over the objection of the defendant. That conviction was reversed in Russell v. State, 269 Ark. 44, 598 S.W. 2d 96 (1980), for the reason that at the time of Russell’s trial the law in Arkansas did not permit the use of a deposition by…