TULSA, Okla. — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals heard oral arguments in the case of David Ware, the man convicted of shooting and killing Tulsa police officer Sgt. Craig Johnson.
Ware's attorney, Taylor Ledford, argued his client deserved a resentence, taking issue with two of the jurors in the trial being excused because they didn't feel they could complete their oath.
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LIVE BLOG: Jurors recommend death sentence for David Ware
He argued the removal of the judges was an abuse of discretion by Judge LaFortune, and because they were removed, Ware's jury was not unanimous in their death sentence verdict. For that reason, Ledford asked the court to consider a resentencing.
WATCH: Attorney's ask for resentence in man convicted of killing Sgt. Craig Johnson
Tulsa District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said it's a unique case, focusing so closely on these two jurors.
“This is a case of first impressions, what that means is we haven’t really dealt with this in the State of Oklahoma before on a death penalty type case," said Kunzweiler. "After we had deliberations in the first two stages of the trial and before we got into sentencing, we had two jurors who struggled and articulated that, according to Judge LaFortune, who we agreed with, that they were incapable of going into deliberations on the third stage, the sentencing stage on the death penalty.”
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The State of Oklahoma argues that because the jurors voiced they could not uphold their oath for one reason or another in sentencing, the judge had every right to excuse them.
Jurors in the appeal hearing said one of the jurors who was excused voiced concerns about sentencing because of their position in the medical field.
David Ware was convicted and sentenced to death in 2022, after the fatal traffic stop on June 29, 2020. Sgt. Johnson was shot and killed, and Officer Aurash Zarkeshan was shot and injured.
Zarkeshan sat in on the nearly two hours of arguments in the full courtroom.
“It speaks a lot to his dedication from the very beginning," said Kunzweiler. "I was there at the beginning of all this, seeing Officer Zarkeshan down at the hospital, struggling for his life, and you could see that fight. He cares very much for Sgt. Johnson’s family and he wants to see justice all the way through, not only for himself, but also for Sgt. Johnson.”
The court does not have a timeline for delivering a response to arguments. Judges gave both the state and the defense 20 days to provide a supplemental brief on their arguments.
Judges also asked both sides to submit their opinions on how judges should handle situations like this in future cases, with jurors being excused because they cannot uphold their oath in a death sentence case.
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