NATION : Death Sentence Voided Over Bible
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ATLANTA — A federal judge has overturned a condemned murderer’s death sentence because the jury that convicted him 10 years ago asked for a Bible during deliberations, court officials said today.
In overturning the sentence of Brandon Jones, 31, who was convicted of killing a policeman during a service-station robbery, U.S. District Judge Charles Moye ruled that the Cobb County jury “had a duty to apply the law of the state of Georgia . . . not its own interpretation of the law or its own interpretation of precepts of the Bible.” The state attorney general’s office is now considering settling for a life sentence for Jones.
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