Circuit Court Judge John C. Few has thrown out the 1998 death sentence of Jimmy Clifton Locklair...

Circuit Court Judge John C. Few has thrown out the 1998 death sentence of Jimmy Clifton Locklair, 34, citing misconduct by both defense counsel and former Solicitor Holman Gossett.
Few ordered a new sentencing but left the guilty verdict intact. In granting part of a motion for post-conviction relief, Few criticized defense attorney Andy Johnston and the former prosecutor for failing to notify the trial judge that a state witness who testified during the penalty phase was also one of Johnston's clients.
Johnston also "omitted several key points" as to that witness' motives during cross-examination, Few wrote, denying Locklair's constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel.
Locklair was found guilty in September 1998 of murdering his former girlfriend, 25-year-old Tammy Bridges, in April 1995. At the time of Bridges' death, Locklair was out of jail on a $50,000 bond in the 1994 shooting death of friend Chris Jones, 21, who also had dated Bridges and was the father of her child.