STATE BENCH OVERTURNS MAN'S DEATH SENTENCE.Byline: Bob Egelko Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. man's death sentence was overturned by the state Supreme Court on Thursday because the jury was not asked to decide whether he had intended to kill a woman after an attempted rape. The evidence of how Sammy Marshall's victim died was inconclusive INCONCLUSIVE. What does not put an end to a thing. Inconclusive presumptions are those which may be overcome by opposing proof; for example, the law presumes that he who possesses personal property is the owner of it, but evidence is allowed to contradict this presumption, and show who is , and jurors, if properly instructed, could have found that it was an accident, the court said. Under court rulings in effect in 1986, at the time of the killing, proof of intent to kill was required for a death sentence. The ruling allows prosecutors to seek a new death sentence for Marshall, 51, after a partial retrial retrial n. a new trial granted upon the motion of the losing party, based on obvious error, bias or newly-discovered evidence. (See: newly-discovered evidence) . The court set aside his death sentence unanimously but voted 4-3 to uphold his murder conviction. Marshall, who had previous convictions for rape and other violent crimes against women, was convicted of the April 1986 murder of Sharon Rawls, 27. He denied killing Rawls, noting that a second man, never identified, was seen coming out of the building where she died. Marshall was convicted of Rawls' murder and of two special circumstances special circumstances n. in criminal cases, particularly homicides, actions of the accused or the situation under which the crime was committed for which state statutes allow or require imposition of a more severe punishment. that made it a capital crime: murder in the course of an attempted rape, and murder in the course of a robbery since he had taken a letter from Rawls. The court threw out the robbery charge, saying there was insufficient evidence insufficient evidence n. a finding (decision) by a trial judge or an appeals court that the prosecution in a criminal case or a plaintiff in a lawsuit has not proved the case because the attorney did not present enough convincing evidence. that Marshall had taken the letter by force, or that he killed Rawls for the purpose of stealing the letter. The justices upheld the attempted-rape charge but said Superior Court Judge Richard Kalustian should have asked jurors whether Marshall had intended to kill his victim. |
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