Appeals Court reverses murder conviction from circuit court

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - The state Court of Appeals on Monday reversed a murder conviction for a man accused of killing a Savannah, Ga., psychologist and dumping his body near Walterboro. <br> <br> The court ruled that ``evidence is insufficient to support the conviction&#39;&#39; of Eddie Lee Arnold. <br> <br> Arnold was tried and convicted in the 1997 murder of Dr. Jennings Cox, who was shot in the head and chest and dumped on a country road near Interstate 95. Colleton County detectives said Arnold&#39;s fingerprints were found on a coffee cup lid inside the car Cox was driving. <br> <br> The court said the state&#39;s case was entirely circumstantial. <br> <br> ``Arnold&#39;s gun was not connected to the crime, and no evidence placed Arnold at any crime scene, in the woods or otherwise,&#39;&#39; the court wrote. <br> <br> The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled in similar cases that the state must assume the burden of proving than the accused was at the scene of the crime when it happened and that he committed the crime. The state failed to do so in Arnold&#39;s case, the appeals court wrote. <br> <br> ``The evidence in this case ... established only that the circumstances were strongly suspicious, but falls short of providing a basis upon which the jury could have reasonably and logically determined Arnold&#39;s guilt,&#39;&#39; the court ruled. <br> <br> But Judge C. Tolbert Goolsby dissented, saying the evidence, although circumstantial, was sufficient. <br> <br> ``I view it as more than a mere coincidence that the defendant&#39;s fingerprints were found on a coffee cup lid inside an automobile that the victim had borrowed on the day he was murdered and that the automobile was found abandoned not far from where the defendant&#39;s father lived,&#39;&#39; Goolsby wrote.