the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out the 1st-degree murder...

the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out the 1st-degree murder conviction and death sentence of James Lawrence Mitchell III, saying inadmissible evidence was presented at his trial. Mitchell was convicted on Feb. 21, 2003 of the July 23, 2000, death of Charita Rashawn Frerene, 3, and sentenced to die by lethal injection and to 2000 years of detention for child abuse and child sexual abuse. The court also ordered a new trial for Mitchell on the child abuse conviction and ordered the child sexual abuse charge be dismissed. It said an error occurred in instruction to the jury on the child abuse charge, and there was insufficient evidence to convict Mitchell on the child sexual abuse charge.
The murder conviction was thrown out and a new trial ordered because hearsay evidence was allowed to be introduced during the trial, the court said. Detective Willie Edwards was permitted to testify that Kyree Rogers, half brother of the slain girl, told him Mitchell picked up Charita by the ankles and slammed her head into the ground numerous times, the opinion said. During the trial, Kyree, who was 7, testified and denied he made that statement to Edwards, the Court of Criminal Appeals said. The trial court abused its discretion when it admitted Kyree's statement to Edwards as substantive evidence when Kyree denied making it, the court said.
Shawanda Nicole Rogers, the children's mother, was convicted in 2002, of first-degree murder and child abuse. She is serving a life sentence.