a death sentence against an inmate who killed a prison...

a death sentence against an inmate who killed a prison employee is not valid because a jury didn't decide his fate, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled.
The state's high court did, however, uphold the 1st-degree murder conviction of Edward Montour Jr. for the October 2002 bludgeoning death of Eric Autobee, a 23-year-old kitchen supervisor at the Limon Correctional Facility.
Montour pleaded guilty to the death of Autobee, and in doing so "automatically waived his right to have a jury determine his sentence" under the state's death penalty statute, the Supreme Court found in a ruling posted today.
"We hold that the statute unconstitutionally links the waiver of a defendant's jury-sentencing right to his guilty plea," the opinion states.
The court's decision reverses the Feb. 27, 2003 death sentence (see) and remands the case back to "the trial court for a jury determination of whether to impose the sentence of life imprisonment or death."
The ruling leaves Nathan Dunlap as the only person currently on death row in Colorado. Dunlap murdered 4 people at a pizza parlor in 1993.
Montour told investigators he killed Autobee, to raise his status in the prison, according to a taped confession.