ANDERSON — An Anderson man who has spent nearly 26 years on death row will be retried after court sent the long-appealed case back to Madison County.
Mark Allen Wisehart, 45, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1983 in the killing of Marjorie Johnson in her Anderson home.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled in 2005 that a jury might have been prejudiced by comments that Wisehart had been offered a polygraph test. The Indiana Attorney General’s office had appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but justices refused to reconsider reinstating Wisehart’s conviction and sentence.
In May, the case was remanded for a new trial in Madison County, and subsequently was assigned to Superior Court 1 Judge Dennis Carroll.
No court date has been set. Jeff Lockwood and Eric Koselke last month were appointed to defend Wisehart. Koselke filed a sealed request for the court to approve funds to hire an investigator, but the court has not acted on the motion.
Attorneys representing Wisehart and prosecutors could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Wisehart was convicted in Madison Superior Court 3 before Judge Thomas Newman, who still presides.
Along with the capital conviction for murder, Wisehart also was convicted of robbery, burglary and theft. He was accused of breaking into Johnson’s home, beating and stabbing her to death, and taking $14.
Wisehart was living at the Christian Center in Anderson at the time of Johnson’s killing. He is the longest-serving of the 17 prisoners on Indiana’s death row in Michigan City.
Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com
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