In Jefferson County, William "Cody" Neal, whose death...

In Jefferson County, William "Cody" Neal, whose death sentence was overturned as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, will instead serve life in prison without parole. Neal was sentenced to death by a 3-judge panel in 1999 for killing Rebecca Holberton, Candace Walters and Angela Fite on June 30, 1998. District Judge Tom Woodford revoked the death sentence and imposed three consecutive life prison terms because of recent court rulings finding that Colorado's law was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that only jurors, not judges, can decide whether a convicted murderer will be executed. The decision threw out judge-sentencing systems in Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Nebraska. As a result, Colorado changed its law in July so that juries do the sentencing in capital cases, as they did before the legislature adopted the three-judge panel system in 1995. Death sentences imposed by the 3-judge panels are being revoked and life sentences imposed in their place.