Thursday it rejected several objections to his conviction for first degree murder:
- that his right to a fair trial was violated by jury misconduct,
- the admission of testimony of a witness in violation of the hearsay rule,
- failing to exclude the testimony of several other witnesses,
- and due process violations.
It was his fourth retrial for the death in 1990 of 9 year old Jennifer Lewis, whose burning body was found in a field near Jefferson Elementary School in Davenport.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled prosecutors offered sufficient evidence to support a murder charge, that Liggins was not in custody when questioned and voluntarily consented to a search of his apartment, and that testimony related to a jailhouse confession was sufficiently corroborated to be admissible.
Liggins' first two convictions were overturned. A third trial ended with a hung jury, and he was again convicted in a 2019 retrial.