The Kansas Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Gavin D. Scott.

The Kansas Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Gavin D. Scott. The justices returned the case to Sedgwick County District Court for a new sentencing hearing. But in its unanimous ruling, the court upheld his capital murder conviction. Scott was sentenced to die by injection for the shootings of Doug and Beth Brittain in their farmhouse in September 1996. The court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Scott primarily over 2 issues. Scott's capital murder conviction was based on a section of the death penalty law that allows capital punishment when a single set of actions leads to more than 1 killing. But a Sedgwick County District Court jury also convicted him of first-degree murder for Doug Brittain's death. His attorneys argued that allowing Scott to be convicted and sentenced on both counts represented duplicate punishments for the same act. In addition, Scott's attorneys questioned the instructions District Judge David Kennedy gave jurors in the penalty phase of Scott's case. In capital cases, jurors first decide a defendant's guilt, then hear evidence and deliberate separately on whether to recommend a death sentence. In the penalty phase, jurors weigh aggravating factors in favor of death and mitigating factors against death. While jurors must agree unanimously on each aggravating factor, there's no such requirement on mitigating ones. And the Supreme Court agreed with Scott's attorneys that Kennedy's instructions did not make that point clear. The case is State v. Gavin D. Scott, No. 83,801. On the Net: Kansas Supreme Court: http://www.kscourts.org