LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court is being asked to reconsider its decision to order a new trial for a death row inmate convicted in the death of his 6-year-old son.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge petitioned the court Monday for a rehearing over its decision last month reversing the capital murder conviction of Mauricio Alejandro Torres. Investigators say Torres used a stick to sexually assault the boy while the family was camping in Missouri. A medical examiner blamed the boy's death on a bacterial infection caused by the assault.
Justices ruled that Arkansas authorities couldn't use rape as a justification for the murder conviction because the assault occurred in Missouri.
Rutledge's filing said the court erred in its analysis of how the law applies to Torres' case.
"As Arkansas’s Attorney General, it is my duty to fight for our state’s most vulnerable, especially children like six year old Isaiah Torres. Isaiah was brutally raped and murdered by his father. Today, I filed a petition for rehearing with the Arkansas Supreme Court in Torres v. State to seek justice for the innocent child who died at the hands of a monster," Rutledge told 5NEWS.