Inmate's death sentence overturned for 2nd time --...

Inmate's death sentence overturned for 2nd time -- Court cites inadequate defense during trial for 1980 Houston murders Max Soffar, who claimed he had falsely confessed involvement in the July 1980 murders of three youths in a Houston bowling alley has been granted a new trial by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 2-1 order marks the second time a three-judge panel has overturned the death sentence of Max Soffar, a petty thief and occasional police informant who talked his way onto death row. Three years ago, on August 30, 2001 (see) an appellate panel granted Mr. Soffar a new trial, but the order was overturned by the full court. Mr. Soffar will remain in prison until the appeals panel decides whether to hear the case, or Harris County decides whether to try him again. The court said Mr. Soffar must be retried within 120 days or released. The panel reversed Mr. Soffar's conviction, saying that he had received an inadequate defense during his 1981 trial. A few years ago, Max Soffar made a fuss when Texas prison officials told him that he could not have a rabbi attend him before his execution. Not long afterward, he asked his lawyer to make sure he would be buried in the same Jewish cemetery as his adoptive parents rather than under a nameless cross in the prison cemetery in Huntsville like his fellow death-row inmates.