the State Court of Appeals ruled this morning that John B. Taylor...

the State Court of Appeals ruled this morning that John B. Taylor, 43, who was sentenced to death for his role in the murders of 5 people in May 2000, cannot be put to death.
The 4-3 ruling by the state’s highest court reinforces its ruling in 2004 that a central provision of the state’s capital punishment law violates the state constitution. It would take action by the Legislature to bring back the death penalty, but Assembly Democrats have shown little inclination to do so.
In 2004, the high court ruled that an instruction judges were legally required to make to jurors in capital cases was unconstitutional. A judge was required to tell jurors that if they could not choose unanimously between a sentence of death and one of life without parole, he or she would impose a sentence that would make the defendant eligible for parole after 20 to 25 years.
The Court of Appeals ruled in June 2004 that those instructions "gives rise to an unconstitutionally palpable risk that 1 or more jurors who cannot bear the thought that a defendant may walk the streets again after serving 20 to 25 years will join jurors favoring death in order to avoid the deadlock sentence."
Taylor, who was sentenced to death by a jury in 2002, was the last remaining inmate on the state's death row.
Taylor's case will now be returned to the State Supreme Court for sentencing; because of sentencing guidelines, he will receive life without parole.