Since his 2003 conviction for murdering a sheriff's deputy, Marlon Kiser has appealed his case, been denied a new trial, had his death sentence upheld, filed motions for post-conviction relief, had his death sentence delayed, and hired new counsel.
Last week, after years of back-and-forth between Kiser's defense and state attorneys, a judge denied his plea for another new trial in the 2001 slaying of Hamilton County Deputy Donald Bond.
Criminal Court Judge Don Poole reviewed Kiser's 35 claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and answered them one by one in a 92-page ruling released Wednesday.
Even though Kiser, a death row inmate at the Riverbend prison in Nashville, lost this round, he can still take advantage of a multifaceted appeals process.
Rachel Harmon, general counsel for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said Kiser now may appeal to Poole's denial to the Tennessee Court of Appeals based on the post-conviction petition.
And if he continues to appeal, he might not be put to death any time soon.
"He's got a ways to go if he wants it," said Harmon, adding that Kiser doesn't appear to have a new execution date. "There are lots of filings ahead of him if he wants to utilize them."
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Kiser's listed attorney, Paul Bruno, of Nashville, could not be reached for comment Friday.
As Poole pointed out, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Kiser's 2003 conviction. The Tennessee Supreme Court did the same, even though it returned his case to Hamilton County to merge the judgments into one conviction for first-degree murder.
According to police and prosecutors, Kiser ambushed Bond early on the morning of Sept. 6, 2001, spraying bullets from a high-powered rifle when the deputy interrupted Kiser's attempt to set fire to a fruit stand on East Brainerd Road. A jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.
In 2009, about a year before his scheduled execution, Kiser filed a petition for post-conviction relief. A judge granted a delay and Kiser, assisted by an attorney, amended his petition four times before it got into Criminal Court in 2014.
Throughout numerous hearings on the petition, multiple witnesses testified they believed a different man, Mike Chattin, had killed Bond and then threatened them into silence. They said Chattin's wife was having affair with Bond. Chattin, then Kiser's roommate, has since died.
The hearings carried into March 2015, when Kiser's attorneys requested that previously untested palm and fingerprints on Bond's flashlight and patrol car door be run through a state system. The prints came back as Kiser's.
Still, the testimony struck to the heart of his attorneys' argument: Kiser was convicted in 2003 because his lawyers at the time failed to dig up evidence that would have showed Chattin framed him.
Ultimately, Poole wrote, if Kiser wanted post-conviction relief for this argument, he needed to present "clear and convincing" evidence. He must establish a factual basis for his allegations, since he now carried the burden of proof.
In a trial, a prosecutor carries that burden and must prove beyond a reasonable doubt a defendant committed the crime.
On nearly every point, Poole wrote, Kiser's claims failed to do that.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.