Death row inmates may see a ray of hope: Ruling could save 40 condemned to

Ruling could save 40 condemned to die
March 4, 2006

When the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in December that a common way prosecutors pursue the death penalty is unconstitutional, the justices wrote that the ruling's impact will be "so slight" that it will only affect "a few" cases.

"A few" may turn out to be 40 of the 84 inmates on death row.

The court is being asked to apply its ruling in convicted murderer Robert Lee McConnell's case to others, and defense attorneys hope the justices will make the case retroactive.

Steven Owens, chief of the Clark County district attorney's appellate office, said if the court issues such a ruling, which he said wouldn't be a surprise, it would give hope to 40 inmates on death row.

Defense attorneys involved in death penalty cases pending before the court agreed.

more...
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2006/mar/04/566628256.html

Wait til word of this gets around to other states ...

by prosecutors sounds pretty glaring and nasty. The juries that went along with it...hmmm. 84 is a lot of people on death row for a state that size- California has about 350, iirc, for 15x the population of Nevada.

Maybe there's some small state elite clique effect at work- here on the East Coast Delaware had bizarrely high numbers of death sentences and executions up to the 1980s.

You folks in Nevada have a lot on your plate this year- this next election could change things quite dramatically. I'm, obscurely enough, hoping for Democrats to make serious gains in your state Senate.