In Wagoner, District Judge Bruce Sewell accepted a...

In Wagoner, District Judge Bruce Sewell accepted a sentencing deal that will spare the life of Billy Ray Battenfield, 51, who twice was sentenced to death in the April 22, 1984, killing of Donald Cantrell. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept intact the murder conviction in 2001 but overturned the death sentence he received in 1985. In September 2001, a jury again recommended the death penalty. But in part because Battenfield's new attorneys didn't address appellate court issues, Sewell didn't formally sentence him and granted a motion for a new sentencing trial.