Tempest v. State

The 1982 brutal murder of Doreen Pi-card (Picard) — not unlike the attempted murder of Martha “Sunny” von Bulow, see State v. von Bulow, 475 A.2d 995 (R.I.1984) — ranks as one of the most infamous crimes committed in this state during the last century. The fact that no arrest was made for several years was a festering sore in the community, compounded by a cover-up by sworn police officers. The majority affirms the hearing justice’s grant of postconviction relief — which vacates a twenty-four-year-old conviction for this murder — solely on the basis of the prosecution’s deliberate…