Kenneth Patterson "Pat" Bondurant, twice convicted of beating...

Kenneth Patterson "Pat" Bondurant, twice convicted of beating, dismembering and burning a fellow worker has been granted a 3rd trial, Judge Jim T. Hamilton said today.
Attorneys for Bondurant requested the new trial claiming portions of the transcript were incomplete. He was charged with the 1986 murder of Ronnie Gaines, a fellow employee of Pulaski Rubber Company.
An investigation ordered by the court revealed portions of jury selection and testimony of an agent of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation were not on the transcript of the second trial conducted in 2004.
"The record is incomplete and inaccurate, thereby depriving him (Bondurant) of the heightened due process that is afforded to death penalty cases," according to Hamilton's record.
Bondurant was convicted for the first time in 1991 and sentenced to death for fatally beating Gaines. According to court documents, Bondurant believed Gaines was stealing a Social Security check from his disabled son.
The 2nd trial was ordered after the Tennessee Supreme Court determined there had been mistakes in jury selection and the jury was not sequestered.
Bondurant, now 52, stays in prison because he was convicted of a 2nd murder.