Johnson v. State

OPINION

By the Court,

Hardesty, J.:

Appellant Donte Johnson was convicted by a jury in 2000 of four counts of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, among other crimes, and was sentenced to death by a three-judge panel. On direct appeal, this court affirmed his conviction, but vacated his death sentence and remanded for a new penalty hearing because the three-judge sentencing procedure violated the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Ring v. Arizona.1

Johnson’s new penalty hearing began in April 2005 before a jury and was bifurcated into separate phases: a death-eligibility…