In Montgomery, a federal appeals court overturned Virgil...

In Montgomery, a federal appeals court overturned Virgil Lee Brownlee's death sentence. In a 3-0 decision, a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said Brownlee's court-appointed attorneys were ineffective in his original sentencing hearing, and he must get a new one.
After that hearing, he could be sentenced to death again or to life in prison without parole. Brownlee was accused of being 1 of 3 men who stormed into Jodie's Lounge on May 19, 1986, firing shots, robbing customers and the owner and then killing the owner, Aaron Dodd.
A Jefferson County jury convicted Brownlee of capital murder in 1987 and recommended a death sentence 11-1, which Jefferson County Circuit Judge James Hard imposed.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the defendant, Virgil Lee Brownlee, had not been effectively represented by his lawyers, who failed to present any mitigating evidence to the jury, "let alone the powerful mitigating evidence of Brownlee's borderline mental retardation." That failure was particularly significant, the court said, in light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling prohibiting the execution of retarded people.