Accused Arkansas Killer, Freed on Bond, Given Permission to Travel

James Dean Walker, who spent time on Death Row in Arkansas on charges that he murdered a police officer 22 years ago, is headed here.

In an unusual ruling, Walker was released on a $150,000 bond and given permission to travel anywhere in the United States until Nov. 14, when he will be retried.

Walker told a judge in Pulaski County, Ark., last week he planned to go to Stateline.

The judge ordered Walker to report to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department. Detective Steve Kibbe said Walker will report to him, adding that he plans to interview the murder suspect as soon as he arrives in Stateline. Kibbe said he has never heard of a murder suspect being allowed to travel outside the county or state where the alleged crime took place.

Walker has twice been convicted of murdering Patrolman Jerrell Vaughan in 1963. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Arkansas officials in May to either retry Walker or free him. The state is planning an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In granting the appeal, the 8th Circuit said that new evidence could help Walker’s case and that the judge who presided over the two previous trials was prejudiced against Walker.

Walker was sentenced to death in 1964, a conviction later overturned by the state Supreme Court. He was retried in 1965 and sentenced to life in prison.

Walker escaped from prison in 1975 and was at large until captured in California in 1979.