a federal court has thrown out the death penalty sentence of Richard Edward Grant...

a federal court has thrown out the death penalty sentence of Richard Edward Grant, who has been on California’s death row for 24 years.
Although 56-year-old Grant’s murder conviction stands, the U.S. District Court in Sacramento has overturned his death penalty sentence, setting the stage for him to be returned to Shasta County for possible retrial on the penalty phase of his 1982 conviction.
In its ruling, the federal court determined that defense attorney Frank O’Connor "ineffectively" represented Grant during the trial’s penalty phase, failing to present "mitigation evidence of Grant’s mental illness and social history, including an abusive upbringing."
The ruling notes that O’Connor said he did not offer evidence of Grant’s childhood and upbringing because it might have permitted the prosecution to offer evidence that Grant allegedly sodomized his younger brothers.
The district attorney’s office will review the case and decide whether to retry Grant on the penalty phase to try to attain a death penalty sentence. Or it could opt to have a Shasta County Superior Court judge sentence Grant to life in prison without parole.
Grant was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the death of Edward Lee Halbert, 41, and of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Frank DeVar Forman, 40. The men’s decomposed bodies were found in 1981.