the Florida Supreme Court gave Jermaine "Bugsy" LeBron a chance to leave death row

the Florida Supreme Court gave Jermaine "Bugsy" LeBron a chance to leave death row when, for the 2nd time, it ordered a new sentencing hearing because of what it called an error by the trial judge. LeBron, 30, was convicted of the November 1995 shotgun murder of Larry Neal Oliver Jr., 22. The case generated so much publicity in Central Florida that the original trial in October 1997 -- which ended in a mistrial -- and a 2nd trial, in which he was convicted in February 1998, were moved to Pinellas County. Thursday's 5-1 ruling nullified the death sentence Chief Orange-Osceola Circuit Judge Belvin Perry handed down in August 2002. Perry also sentenced LeBron to death in 1998, but the state Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing. The jury's vote for death was 7-5 both times. The justices determined that testimony from a police sergeant about a second shotgun attack in 1995 for which LeBron was convicted should not have been admitted because it prejudiced the jury.