A Marion County judge dismissed death penalty convictions...

A Marion County judge dismissed death penalty convictions against 2 accused killers. Superior Court Judge Grant Hawkins found Indiana's law governing capital punishment unconstitutional and dismissed the death penalty against Charles E. Barker and Chijoike Bomani Ben-Yisrayl. In his rulings, Hawkins struck down the state's death penalty law because it gives judges the authority to impose death when jurors cannot make a decision. He ruled that the law violates a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring that juries, not judges, make the final decision on whether a person is put to death. Barker was convicted of killing Francis and Helen Benefiel in Indianapolis in 1993. Ben-Yisrayl, then known as Greagree Davis, was found guilty in September 1984 of the murder and rape of Debra Weaver, 21.