Earl Van Denton was convicted in Arkansas of capital murder for the deaths of two people in June 1977. His co-defendant, Paul Ruiz, was tried with him and received the same verdict and sentence. At the time Van Denton was serving a life sentence for murder in Oklahoma, and Ruiz was serving a life sentence for armed robbery. The Arkansas deaths were part of a spree across three states, and they are the only killings for which the two men were convicted.
The case moved slowly through the courts. The first convictions in 1978 were set aside, a retrial followed in 1983, the death sentences were set aside again in 1987, and a further sentencing hearing ended with new death sentences. Van Denton was executed in Arkansas on January 8, 1997, nearly twenty years after the deaths.
Van Denton was serving a life sentence for murder in Oklahoma when the events of June 1977 began. He was 47 at his execution.
Authorities linked Van Denton and Ruiz to deaths in several places during the last days of June and early July 1977. No charges were brought over a Boswell, Oklahoma, death on June 27, and the only prosecutions were for the two Arkansas deaths.
The Arkansas deaths occurred on June 29, 1977, in Logan County. The victims were Marvin Ritchie, of Magazine, and Opal James. One other person survived the events and later identified both men in court.
Van Denton and Ruiz were arrested in Portland, Oregon, on July 8, 1977. They were returned to Arkansas to face trial.
The two men were tried together for capital murder at Booneville, in Logan County. The jury convicted both on April 27, 1978, after deliberating for about forty minutes. It then deliberated for roughly another hour before recommending the death penalty, and both men were sentenced to death. The survivor identified them in court. From that conviction until the execution, Van Denton and Ruiz were among the longest-serving inmates on Arkansas death row.
The Arkansas Supreme Court set aside the 1978 convictions. The reason was pretrial publicity in Logan County that was found prejudicial. The case was moved to Morrilton, in Conway County, where both men were tried again in 1983. Both were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death a second time.
In an opinion dated July 18, 1983, the Arkansas Supreme Court recorded that Ruiz and Van Denton had been found guilty of capital murder at both trials, that the first conviction had been reversed and the case remanded for a new trial in another part of the judicial district, and that death had been imposed at both. The court affirmed the second sentence on appeal. A first petition under its Rule 37 had been denied on the merits. The same opinion dismissed a second petition as successive and held that the sentences had been compared with those in other capital cases and were not arbitrary or capricious.
In 1987 the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set aside the death sentences, and the sentencing phase was held again. Both men were again sentenced to death. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the new sentences in 1989, and an appeal to the Eighth Circuit that year was denied.
On December 11, 1995, the Eighth Circuit decided Ruiz v. Norris, in which Van Denton and Ruiz appealed against the dismissal of their habeas corpus petitions. A panel of Chief Judge Richard S. Arnold and Judges Gibson and Wollman affirmed the dismissal. The court held that the district court had not abused its discretion in refusing an evidentiary hearing on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, because the petitioners had not identified a factual dispute. It held that an aggravating circumstance that overlapped with an element of the underlying offense did not violate the Constitution under circuit precedent, and that a claim about a unanimity instruction was procedurally defaulted and successive. The remaining claims were affirmed on the district court's reasoning.
A final appeal was denied on January 3, 1997. Governor Mike Huckabee set the date of January 8, 1997. Van Denton was executed in Arkansas on that date.
In the 1970s and 1980s Arkansas capital cases ran through the state trial court, a direct appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court, a petition under that court's Rule 37 for post-conviction relief, and then federal habeas corpus proceedings in the district court and the Eighth Circuit. The Arkansas Supreme Court stated in 1983 that it had compared each death sentence with those in other capital cases since its 1975 decision in Collins v. State. The two men's cases went through all of those stages, and the federal court intervened once, in 1987, on the sentences rather than the verdicts.
Seven killings across Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas were suspected, with two people believed killed in Oklahoma and three in Louisiana besides the two Arkansas victims. The only prosecutions were in Arkansas. No conviction exists for any death outside Arkansas, and no court has found Van Denton responsible for those deaths.
Before June 1977: serving a life sentence for murder in Oklahoma.
June 29, 1977: the Arkansas deaths of Marvin Ritchie and Opal James, Logan County.
July 8, 1977: Van Denton and Ruiz arrested in Portland, Oregon.
April 27, 1978: convicted of capital murder at Booneville; death recommended.
1983: retried at Morrilton; convicted of capital murder; sentenced to death.
July 18, 1983: Arkansas Supreme Court opinion affirming the second sentence and dismissing a second Rule 37 petition.
1987: Eighth Circuit sets aside the death sentences; resentenced to death.
1989: Arkansas Supreme Court affirms the new sentences; Eighth Circuit appeal denied.
December 11, 1995: Eighth Circuit affirms dismissal of habeas petitions (Ruiz v. Norris).
January 3, 1997: final appeal denied.
January 8, 1997: Van Denton executed in Arkansas.