the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the death penalty

the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the death penalty for a man convicted of robbing a St. Louis bank and murdering a guard. 
The full court ruled that Billie Jerome Allen's death sentence was constitutional, rejecting his attorneys' claims that the grand jury's indictment of Allen failed to properly charge him with crimes punishable by death.
Allen, 26, and co-defendant Norris Holder, 27, were convicted and sentenced to death during separate 1998 trials involving the March 1997 slaying of bank guard Robert Heflin, 46.
The case has been through a series reversals. A 3-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the death sentence for both men in a 2-1 vote in 2001, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned those rulings in 2002 and sent the case back for further review.
On February 2, 2004, (see) in another 2-1 vote, the 8th Circuit Court panel vacated the sentence, but in May 2004 the appeals court reversed that decision and decided to have all of the court's judges review the case.