The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis spared the life of Billie Jerome Allen on grounds that his federal indictment did not include the aggravating factors necessary to support his execution. But Norris Holder, convicted from the single indictment that bore both names, remains on death row, with the type of appeal Allen used already exhausted. Holder's lawyer said that his client can still seek to be spared in other avenues of appeal which remain open. It appeared the difference was in the way the men's appeals were framed by their lawyers. Allen and Holder were convicted of killing guard Richard Heflin, 46, in a holdup. A panel of the appeals court ordered that Allen's case be sent to the lower district court for him to be sentenced to life. The judges had found that the grand jury which indicted Allen had not set forth specific aggravating factors on which prosecutors could argue for a death sentence. The Supreme Court had asked the 8th Circuit in 2002 to reconsider Allen's death sentence in light of the high court's decision in an Arizona case that requires a jury to decide whether aggravating factors - such as cruelty or committing a crime for pecuniary gain - merit capital punishment.