High court denies Itawamba man's final appeal
May 6—JACKSON — An Itawamba County man's last chance to appeal his murder conviction and 40-year sentence for the 2008 death of his 4-month-old daughter ended Thursday.
The Mississippi Supreme Court denied the motion for rehearing of Joshua Clark May 6 in a 6-3 vote. The ruling effectively ends Clark's appeals. It follows a 5-4 ruling in February where the supreme court upheld both the conviction and sentence.
In filing the motion for rehearing, Clark and his attorney Jim Waide hoped that because the February ruling was a split decision, one of the justices would reconsider and vote in their favor. But the result was actually just the opposite.
Associate justice David Ishee who opposed the February ruling voted to deny the rehearing this week. A rehearing denial is only a simple entry in the court minutes. There is no opinion attached to explain Ishee's change of thought.
Clark was convicted in Itawamba County Circuit Court in 2016. On appeal, Clark argued that Judge Thomas Garner should not have allowed the undocumented testimony of a state expert. He appealed, arguing that "Shaken Baby Syndrome" has since been disproved by science.
In 2019, the Mississippi Court of Appeals agreed, reversing the conviction and ordering a new trial. The state appealed that decision to the supreme court which upheld the conviction in February.
Clark has been in jail or prison for more than 12 years. He was originally charged with capital murder following the January 2008 death of Kylie Clark. During his first trial in 2010, he accepted a plea agreement, pleaded guilty to depraved heart murder and was sentenced to life in prison. On direct appeal, that plea was vacated by Judge Gardner on the grounds of ineffective counsel. Gardner also presided over the second trial.
