New York State's highest court has tossed out the death...

New York State's highest court has tossed out the death sentence against a man convicted of the poisoning death of his wife in a Syracuse hospital. The Court of Appeals has vacated James F. Cahill's death sentence and ordered resentencing under the 2nd-degree murder statute. Cahill was facing death for poisoning his 41-year-old wife Jill to death with potassium cyanide in 1998. She was in a Syracuse hospital at the time recuperating from injuries Cahill inflicted on her when he beat her with a baseball bat. In its ruling, the Court of Appeals said there was insufficient evidence in the Cahill case to prove the circumstances necessary to sustain a death sentence in New York State. The judges said prosecutors didn't prove that Cahill had either committed his wife's murder to prevent her from testifying against him in court, or in the course of burglarizing her hospital room.