Jefferson v. State

Tom Glaze, Justice.

Appellant T. C. Jefferson was serving time at the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Delta Regional Unit for having committed rape when, on September 20, 1994, he stabbed three fellow inmates ■ — ■ James Jerry, Anthony Monts, and Rusty Cook. Jerry and Monts died. Jefferson confessed to the stabbings, and was charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted capital murder.

At trial, Jefferson’s defense was that he acted in “preemptive” self-defense, stating the three men would have killed him if he had not killed them first. The jury found him guilty of…