18 June 2010 :

Kentucky Supreme Court throws out death sentence for Phillip Brown. Brown, 30, white, cannot face the death penalty when he is re-sentenced because a jury gave him life during his first trial, the court ruled today. He was convicted of robbing and murdering Sherry Bland on Jan. 11, 2001. At the first trial, he was sentenced (November 12, 2003) to life without parole for 25 years. That conviction was overturned and the trial moved to nearby Warren County. At the second trial in 2006, a jury handed down a death sentence (see May 12 and Aug. 19). Handing down a death sentence in a retrial violated Brown's constitutional rights because of the jury's finding in the first trial, the Court wrote. The decision overturns two Kentucky Supreme Court rulings allowing jurors to hand down a death sentence at a retrial when one wasn't given during an initial trial. Brown's case now moves back to Warren County for re-sentencing on convictions for murder, burglary and robbery.