A Cocke County Circuit Court jury returned a death...

A Cocke County Circuit Court jury returned a death sentence against Jonathan Stephenson, 38, convicted 12 years ago of murdering his wife.
He was ordered by Judge Ben Hooper to be put to death by lethal injection on Feb. 28, 2003.
The defendant was convicted in 1990 of the Dec. 3, 1989, rifle shooting of his 26-year-old wife, Lisa.
The conviction was overturned, however, because the jury verdict form that was used was out-of-date, and the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered a new trial. But instead of going to trial, Stephenson agreed to plead guilty to charges of 1st-degree murder and conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder.
The plea agreement provided that the defendant would receive a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole and a consecutive 60-year term on the conspiracy conviction.
Later, the state Supreme Court upheld the convictions but threw out the sentence because Tennessee law did not provide for a sentence of life without parole in 1989 when the crime was committed.
At that point District Attorney General Al Schmutzer decided to take the case to a jury for sentencing.