The Tennessee Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for Arthur T. Copeland, who was convicted of first degree murder for the 1998 shooting death of Andre Jackson in Maryville.
A unanimous court concluded the trial court should have allowed the defense to present the testimony of an expert on the issue of eyewitness identification. The court ruled that the test established in a 1997 Tennessee Supreme Court decision, McDaniel v. CSX Transp., Inc., was the proper guideline for the admission of such evidence. The McDaniel case provided trial judges with wide discretion in determining whether an expert may testify.
“Dr. Brigham’s testimony satisfies the requirements of the McDaniel test in that it is reliable and would have been of substantial assistance to the jury,” Justice Gary R. Wade wrote on behalf of the court.
Noting that there were conflicts in the identification testimony offered by witnesses for the state, the court concluded, “We cannot say that the erroneous exclusion of Dr. Brigham’s testimony was harmless.” The application of the McDaniel test overruled a previous case which had prohibited altogether the testimony of any eyewitness identification experts, regardless of the caliber of his or her credentials.
Jurors convicted Copeland and sentenced him to death for shooting Jackson outside his home in April 1998. While some witnesses placed Copeland with a group of men who intended to kill the victim, only one individual identified Copeland as the man who entered Jackson’s home and forced him outside and she had made a conflicting statement during the police investigation. Ironically, Copeland was himself shot only hours after Jackson's death.
While the Court of Criminal Appeals set aside the death penalty, the Supreme Court reversed on that point, ruling that the state is entitled to seek capital punishment if Copeland is again convicted of first degree murder.