Jurors recommended to a Pinellas-Pasco circuit court...

Jurors recommended to a Pinellas-Pasco circuit court judge that Troy Merck jr. be executed for the Oct. 11, 1991 killing of James A. Newton outside a bar. Jurors recommended, with a 9-to-3 vote, that Judge Brandt Downey sentence Merck, 32, to death rather than life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. The final decision is Downey's, but by law the judge must give the jury recommendation great weight. No sentencing date is set. Merck had already been sentenced to death twice for the same fact. The 2 previous death sentences were overturned by the Florida Supreme Court, which affirmed Merck's conviction. The high court ordered the selection of new juries to recommend a sentence after procedural errors.