New York's highest court threw out the death sentence...

New York's highest court threw out the death sentence for the first man condemned under the state's 1995 capital punishment law, saying the law was unconstitutional at the time he was sentenced.
The Court of Appeals ruled 6-1 that Darrel Harris' constitutional right to a trial by jury was violated by offering him an incentive - avoiding death - if he pleaded guilty and accepted the sentence of life without parole.
Even though Harris did not take that offer, the law was coercive because an innocent man, threatened with death, might be tempted to plead guilty to save his life, past rulings have said.
Harris was ordered re-sentenced to 20 years-to-life, 25 years-to-life or life without parole. The judges said there was no doubt about his guilt or the fairness of his conviction.
The former New York City jail guard, now 44, was convicted by a jury of shooting two patrons to death in a Brooklyn club and fatally stabbing a third in 1996.
The last execution in New York was in 1963.