USA - Alabama. Victor Stephens, 49, black, was taken off death row after 25 years and resentenced to life in

Victor Stephens, 49, black, was taken off death row after 25 years and resentenced to life in prison. The result came after the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama on October 6, 2011 (see), vacated the conviction and sentence founding that the Hale County prosecutor who tried the case illegally discriminated against African Americans during jury selection. During his capital trial, the prosecution illegally used 21 of its 23 peremptory strikes to remove eligible African Americans from serving on his jury. The State settled the case without a new trial and, today, Mr. Stephens was re-sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Stephens was sentenced in 1987 for killing two men at a country store in Hale County. Stephens and another man shot store owner J.R. Bailey, 72, and Adam Pickens, 82, on January 20, 1986.