1 of 2 death penalties against Vernon Brown was overturned...

1 of 2 death penalties against Vernon Brown was overturned by a federal appeals court whose members said a supportive letter from his stepbrother was wrongly kept from jurors. Prosecutors now must decide whether to retry the penalty phase of Brown's trial or convert his sentence to life without parole for the murder of Synetta Ford, 19, in March 1985. In a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis decided the trial court judge had acted improperly. The decision does not affect Brown's death sentence for the unrelated slaying of Janet Perkins, 9, in 1986. In 1991, a St. Louis Circuit Court jury found Brown guilty of murdering Ford. In the penalty phase of the trial, his lawyers sought to show jurors a letter from Brown's stepbrother, Darius Q. Turner, then a U.S. soldier serving in Operation Desert Shield. Circuit Judge Michael F. Godfrey refused to allow Turner's letter to go to the jury, saying it was not sworn testimony.