D'Arcangelo v. State

NORTHCUTT, Judge.

In this unusual case, Anthony D’Arcan-gelo seeks certiorari review of the circuit court’s order declining to determine his competency and to stay proceedings on his motion for postconviction relief. We grant the petition.

In 1982 a jury convicted D’Arcangelo of two counts of first-degree murder. The State endeavored to have him sentenced to death, but the penalty-phase jurors split evenly on the question. The trial court concluded that the appropriate punishment was life imprisonment, and it imposed that sentence.

At D’Arcangelo’s guilt-phase trial, the State presented…