The longest-serving prisoner on Texas' death row won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling today that his case must go back to his trial court

The longest-serving prisoner on Texas' death row won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling today that his case must go back to his trial court in Dallas. Ronald Chambers, 53, has been on death row for 32 years, sent there in 1976 for the April 11, 1975 abduction and fatal shooting of 22-year-old Mike McMahan. Chambers had arrived on Texas' death row on Jan. 8, 1976, 3 days before his 21st birthday, has now seen his conviction and death sentence overturned 3 times. Without comment, the high court declined to review a federal appeals court's decision to send back Mr. Chambers' case because questions used by jurors to decide his death sentence were improper. The Texas attorney general's office had appealed a Jan. 2 (see) ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was based on a Supreme Court decision last year involving jury instructions given to three other condemned Texas prisoners. The same questions – no longer used – given in those cases were part of the instructions used by the jury in Mr. Chambers' case. Clarence Williams, Chambers’ co-defendant, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and murder and received two life sentences and remains in prison.