North Carolina Superior Court Judge Wade Barber vacated...

North Carolina Superior Court Judge Wade Barber vacated Bobby Lee Harris' death sentence because of flawed court procedures in his case.
Bobby Lee Harris, 35, had been one of 26 death row inmates featured in Italian clothing maker Benetton's anti-death penalty ad campaign last year. Judge Barber on Monday vacated his death sentence for murder, saying proper court procedures weren't followed in the case.
In vacating the death sentence, the Superior Court judge said the process had been flawed because one judge presided over Harris´ trial and another judge presided during his sentencing.
The judge also said the trial jury was dismissed "without good cause" and replaced with a second jury that was "without authority to hear the penalty phase of the trial."
"The law provides that every criminal trial shall be conducted in one session of court, by one judge and one jury," Barber´s ruling stated.
"It´s a relief," said Dan Shatz, who has represented Harris since sentencing.
The state attorney general's office was reviewing the ruling and declined comment.
Harris still is being held on a 40-year sentence for robbery with a dangerous weapon, a 40-year sentence for second-degree burglary, a 10-year sentence for larceny of a firearm and a 10-yearsentence for auto larceny, said Keith Acree, spokesman for the Department of Corrections. Acree said the death sentence still stands and Harris likely will be resentenced.
Corrections officials had not received a copy of the order late Monday, Acree said. When the paperwork is received, likely in a few days, Harris will be transferred off death row.
Harris, 35, confessed to the 1991 stabbing death of commercial fisherman John Redd and admitted stealing his truck and about $80.
His sentencing was delayed by six months because his defence lawyer was battling bone cancer and the attorney who replaced him needed time to prepare. The jury was dismissed in the meantime.
Harris had been scheduled to die by injection January 19, but got a reprieve hours before his execution when the state Supreme Court upheld a stay issued by Barber.
The case took another twist when a German woman, Dagmar Polzin, said she fell in love with Harris after seeing his picture in the Benetton ad on a Hamburg, Germany, bus-stop. Polzin, 32, left her job as a waitress in Germany and moved to North Carolina, intending to marry Harris. She could not be reached for comment Monday.
Benetton's "We on Death Row" project included a 96-page magazine supplement published last year and a photo feature on the company's Web site. It was based on interviews with 26 condemned inmates from six states, including the seven inmates from North Carolina.