A year after upholding a man's murder conviction, the...

A year after upholding a man's murder conviction, the Arizona Supreme Court has overturned his death sentence and ordered a new sentencing, this time by a jury. The Supreme Court ruled it could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that a jury would have reached the same conclusions as the Maricopa County Superior Court judge who sentenced Antoin Jones in December 1999. Jones was found guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing a 12-year-old girl, Jeraldine Gishie, in Glendale in 1996. The Supreme Court in July 2002 had upheld Jones' convictions for murder, kidnapping and sexual assault on a minor but delayed action on his death sentence because the U.S. Supreme Court had one month earlier overturned the state's death penalty process. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling said it was unconstitutional for Arizona to have judges, not juries, decide whether circumstances in cases warranted a death sentence or leniency. Arizona subsequently rewrote its sentencing law to have juries decide not only the existence of specific circumstances but also to decide whether to impose death sentences or life in prison.