Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Petition For Dansby Rehearing Filed

Gene Bramblett, the attorney for Joe Louis Dansby has filed a petition for a rehearing in his murder case.

Bramblett said he will keep fighting for his client and plans on taking the case to the federal level if this is what's required.

He said Dansby's first appeal was denied by the Arkansas Supreme Court, but added there are several issues in question concerning the original trial and these need to be addressed.

In 1997, Dansby was convicted of the May 16, 1992, murders of Jeff Lewis and Malissa Clark. He was sentenced to death in both instances.

Originally, Dansby was sentenced to be put to death by lethal injection on June 25, 1997, but was granted a stay of execution pending further legal hearings in the case.

However, his attorneys didn't immediately file the paperwork for a stay of execution, and their client came within a day of having the court's orders carried out. The stay was ordered June 24, 1997.

The case was a sensational one as it involved two well-known young people of the area. Lewis, 24, and Clark, 21, were engaged to be married.

They had gone riding on his four-wheeler May 16, 1992, and failed to return home.

Early the next morning, search parties were formed by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office. These parties combed the rural areas before coming across what was to be the first of two crime scenes in the case.

Searchers found evidence at the first scene, on a Potlatch logging road off the mail route road near the Upchurch Community.

Here they found Lewis' 1986 Chevrolet pickup, showing signs of having been in an accident. It was learned the truck had hit a stump and tree when the two were trying to escape.

Glass from the driver's side outside mirror was found on the ground, along with Lewis' checkbook, sunglasses and gym shorts, along with a small amount of blood.

Lewis was found in the bed of his pickup wedged between his all-terrain vehicle and the driver's side of the bed. He had been shot several times with what was later learned to be a .22 caliber rifle.

Clark's nude body was found on the ground behind the pickup. Again, the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.

Several spent .22 caliber shell casings were retrieved from the site.

A second crime scene was also found during the search, this one off county road 22 in southeast Nevada County.

Clark's body was autopsied, with the medical examiner finding evidence of semen. This was tested against Lewis' blood samples and found not to match his DNA type.

As the investigation continued, former Sheriff Abb Morman submitted Dansby's name as a possible suspect.

On two separate occasions Dansby denied owning a Marlin .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle, yet a paper trail showed one had been purchased in his name four years earlier from the Arkadelphia Wal-Mart store.

Dansby's wife, Betty, informed authorities Dansby did in fact own such a rifle at the time of the murders, but added she had not seen it since the two young people were slain.

According to court records, she told officers Dansby had admitted killing the two allegedly because white people killed his grandfather and nothing was done about it.

She also informed officials where the rifle could be found. A search of bar pits off Highway 53 was organized, with divers finding the weapon in Dec. 1993.

Dansby was brought in and had to submit to a blood test, with his blood checked against the semen sample found during the Clark autopsy. Court records show the samples matched.

Dansby was arrested, but first had to be extradited from Altus, Okla. This occurred Aug. 10, 1996, with former Sheriff Harold Vines going to get the suspect.

Prescott attorney Gene Hale was Dansby's court appointed lawyer.

After the arrest, Hale fought gamely for his client, only to be replaced by the firm of Bramblett and Pratt of Camden.

However, before Hale was replaced, the trial had been moved from Nevada County to Miller County.

Bramblett and James Pratt fought to get the case moved back to Prescott, but the courts disagreed, keeping it in Texarkana.

The trial lasted three weeks before the jury concluded Dansby was guilty of murdering Clark and Lewis.

He was given two death penalties, one for each of his victims.

Dansby has been on death row since April 24, 1997, with his legal counsel appealing for a rehearing in the case.

Bramblett and Pratt, though, have since split the partnership after Pratt became prosecuting attorney. Now, Bramblett is the chief attorney in the case for Dansby.

The case is now in the hands of the Arkansas Supreme Court.