Appeals court rules Arkansas death row inmate can sue state over DNA test refusal

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that an Arkansas inmate on death row can sue the state in his effort to have new tests run on DNA evidence that could clear him. The three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, Missouri, did not address the merits of Stacey Eugene Johnson’s case, but limited its review to whether he has standing and whether the defendants are immune from a lawsuit under the 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The panel said in Monday’s ruling that the defendants are not immune, and Johnson has alleged a sufficient connection between the defendants and enforcement of Act 1780, which allows for post-conviction DNA testing. Johnson, now 53, has been on death row since 1997 for the death of Carol Heath, of De Queen, Arkansas.