In Sapulpa, Calvin Lee Johnson will get a new trial...

In Sapulpa, Calvin Lee Johnson will get a new trial after the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his conviction because the trial judge allowed the jury to go to lunch. The court, voting 3-2, said District Judge Donald D. Thompson should have sequestered the jury before it began deliberating whether Johnson was guilty of 1st-degree murder. Instead, over defense objections, Thompson allowed the jury to leave the Creek County Courthouse for a 75-minute lunch break after it received instructions and heard closing arguments. An 1890 state law requires that juries be kept together from the time the case is turned over for deliberations until the verdict is returned. Johnson was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the October 1999 shotgun slaying of Russell Milton, 61. However, the court ruled against Johnson's claim that the state's evidence was insufficient for his conviction.