for the 1st time in his 9 years on the bench, Mobile County Circuit Judge...

for the 1st time in his 9 years on the bench, Mobile County Circuit Judge Joseph "Rusty" Johnston overrode a jury's recommendation of life without parole in a capital murder case and instead condemned a man to death.
Johnston noted in his 12-page ruling that during the penalty phase of Thomas Robert Lane's February trial, 8 jurors had voted for life without parole, and four had voted for death.
The judge expressed his appreciation for the jurors' "work and service" but wrote that after giving their recommendation "due consideration and weight ... the punishment should be death."
Under Alabama law, a judge is allowed to override a jury's recommendation in capital cases if he finds that the crime's aggravating elements outweigh the mitigating circumstances.
Theresa Lane, 31, a native of the Philippines, died on the morning of Oct. 12, 2003, in a home she shared with a friend after separating from Thomas Lane, now 40, following 8 years of marriage.
The couple had met through a service that supplied Filipino women to American men.
Thomas Lane apparently wanted his estranged wife out of the way because he had already made arrangements for yet another mail-order bride from the Philippines, Johnston noted in his ruling.
Thomas Lane had bragged to friends, Johnston wrote, that his new bride-to-be was 13 or 14 years old.