Today's Burlington Free Press reports, "Feds want death penalty restored in Fell case," by Sam Hemingway.
The U.S. attorney for Vermont will appeal the decision by federal Judge William K. Sessions III to order a new trial in the death-penalty case of Donald Fell.
In a one-sentence statement filed Monday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin and Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow notified the court that the government will contest the ruling with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
No details on the basis for the appeal were provided. The government had until this week to signal to the court whether prosecutors would accept Sessions' ruling or challenge it.
"Federal prosecutors to appeal new trial order in Vermont death penalty case," is AP coverage, via the Greenfield Daily Reporter.
Federal prosecutors said Monday they would appeal a judge's decision granting a new trial to a man on death row for murder because one of the jurors in the trial visited the crime scene and discussed the case outside of court.
The two paragraph notice to appeal the July decision by U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York was filed Monday.
And:
Vermont does not have a death penalty, but Fell was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 under federal law for the kidnapping and death of Terry King, 53, the North Clarendon woman who was abducted as she arrived for work at a Rutland supermarket. King was later killed in New York.
Earlier coverage of Donald Fell's case begins a the link. Related posts are in the federal death penalty category index.
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