# Henry v. State

> Supreme Court of Arkansas · February 28, 1983 · 278 Ark. 478

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9682512

## Case

- **Full name:** Billy Gale HENRY v. STATE of Arkansas
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Arkansas
- **Decided:** February 28, 1983
- **Citations:** 278 Ark. 478; 647 S.W.2d 419; 1983 Ark. LEXIS 1293
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Hickman
- **Judges:** Purtle, Hickman, Adkisson
- **Cited by:** 44 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9682512

## Opinion text

Darrell Hickman, Justice, concurring. This is the first capital case in which we have actually had to compare the propriety of the death sentence with the sentence in other cases. In none of those we have approved are there any candidates for legal mercy — they deserved the death penalty without question for their particular crimes.
That is not the case here, not if we abide by the majority’s decision in Collins v. State, 261 Ark. 195 , 548 S.W.2d 106 (1977), cert. denied 434 U.S. 878 (1977). In Collins, we abandoned the notion there must be a legal mistake in order to reduce a sentence in a death case. We made a pact, so to speak, that we would, on our own, make certain the death penalty was not the result of passion, prejudice or excessive under the circumstances. We have to keep that pact as a matter of integrity. I concur only to point out that I disagree to that extent with the dissent. That the defendant did not pull the trigger is not always a determinative factor — it may be an appropriate reason or not to reduce the death penalty, depending on the circumstances.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9682512. Public record. Not legal advice.