Superior Court Judge John Lee Parrott overturned the murder conviction

Superior Court Judge John Lee Parrott overturned the murder conviction of  Willie Palmer after finding that prosecutors hid a $500 payoff to the state's key trial witness, an act the judge said was "in defiance of (the state's) legal and ethical duties." 
The judge also threw out Palmer's 1997 death sentence on the grounds that his trial lawyer failed to investigate and present evidence of Palmer's mental retardation. In 1997, Palmer was convicted and sentenced to death for killing his wife, Brenda Palmer, and her 15-year-old daughter, Christine Jenkins.