The Georgia Supreme Court ruling in Ellington v. Georgia is available in Adobe .pdf format
"Death sentences overturned for man who killed family," is Bill Rankin's post at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday threw out death sentences imposed by a DeKalb County jury against a man who killed his wife and their 2-year-old twin sons.
The court, in a unanimous opinion, upheld the murder convictions against Clayton Jerrod Ellington and sent the case back for a new sentencing trial. When Ellington’s death sentence was handed down in 2008, it was the first capital sentence imposed by a DeKalb jury in almost two decades.
In reversing the death sentences, Justice David Nahmias wrote that the trial judge incorrectly prohibited Ellington’s lawyers from asking prospective jurors during jury selection if they would only consider a death sentence — and not life in prison — for the murder of two young children.
The jury selection process is needed to find a jury that will be fair and impartial, Nahmias wrote.
"Death Penalty Tossed Out in DeKalb Triple Murder Case," is the AP report, via WMAZ-TV.
The Georgia Supreme Court has unanimously tossed out the death sentence of a man who was convicted of killing his wife and twin 2-year-old sons in Lithonia in 2006.The court on Monday upheld Clayton Jerrod Ellington's murder conviction, and a jury will once again have the option to sentence him to death.
Ellington's attorneys had argued the trial court unfairly prohibited them from asking prospective jurors whether they would consider a life sentence rather than the death penalty.
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