A jury sentenced Leroy D. Cropper to death

A jury sentenced Leroy D. Cropper to death for the March 7, 1997 killing of corrections officer Brent Lumley at the Perryville Prison Complex. Cropper, 44, white, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and assault May 1999. Judge David Cole sentenced Cropper to death in November 2000, but the Arizona Supreme Court overturned the decision in 2003 in a sweeping ruling that stated juries and not judges must determine whether a defendant received the death penalty. Cropper was one of more than a dozen convicts who benefited by what has been referred to as the "Ring Decision." Prosecutors went to a jury and requested the death penalty for Cropper in 2006, but the trail ended in a hung jury. The matter went back to the court and today a jury ruled in favor of the death penalty.