Robert O

Robert O. Marshall was granted a new sentencing hearing after 18 years on New Jersey's death row in Trenton. His story gained national attention in 1989 with the release of Joe McGinniss's best-selling book, "Blind Faith," an account of how Mr. Marshall came to arrange his wife's murder in 1983. Mr. Marshall, 64, was granted the new hearing by Judge Joseph E. Irenas of Federal District Court in Camden, who ruled that Mr. Marshall's lawyer at his trial in 1986, Glenn A. Zeitz, was ineffective and that the sentence should be vacated. The attorney general's office will appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia. If Judge Irenas's decision is upheld, the case would then return to the Atlantic County prosecutor's office. A state court must hold a new sentencing hearing for Marshall within four months, Irenas ruled.