Scores Of Death Sentences Tossed

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/19/national/main612605.shtml

(CBS/AP) A federal appeals court overturned more than 100 death sentences in Arizona, Idaho and Montana Tuesday, ruling that condemned inmates in the three states were wrongly sent to death row by judges instead of juries.

By an 8-3 vote, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said all condemned inmates sentenced by a judge should have their sentences commuted to life terms.

The case is an interpretation of a 2002 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, in which the high court found that juries, not judges, must render death sentences. But the Supreme Court left unclear whether the new rules should apply retroactively to inmates condemned by judges in Arizona, Idaho and Montana, Colorado and Nebraska.

"By deciding that judges are not constitutionally permitted to decide whether defendants are eligible for the death penalty, the Supreme Court altered the fundamental bedrock principles applicable to capital murder trials," Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote for the court.

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I know Bush said so.