USA - Arizona. Judge Robert Gottsfield threw out Darrel Pandeli's death sentence because of ineffective defense counsel

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Gottsfield threw out Darrel Pandeli's death sentence because he had ineffective defense counsel. Pandeli, 50, White, killed and mutilated two prostitutes in 1993. He was sentenced to death twice for one of the murders and sentenced to 20 years for the other. The judge ruled that Pandeli's prior attorneys failed to show evidence he had brain damage. Judge Gottsfield wrote: "Defendant, it is clear, suffers from a serious mental illness (cerebral dysfunction and impaired frontal lobes) but the jury was told he had an anti-social personality disorder and was a malingerer." The ruling was officially handed down Feb. 27, but published today. Pandeli was arrested in 1993 for the September 24, 1993 murder of Holly Iler, 43. After his arrest, Pandeli confessed to the 1992 murder and mutilation of another prostitute, Teresa Humphreys. He was convicted of second-degree murder in that killing and sentenced to 20 years in prison, a term he has already completed. In 1996, Pandeli was found guilty of killing Iler, and a judge sentenced him to death. But a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as the Ring Decision mandated jury sentencing instead of judge sentencing in death-penalty cases, sending the case back to Maricopa County Superior Court for re-sentencing. Pandeli went back on trial and on April 20, 2006 was sentenced to death again, this time by a jury. Whether the prosecutor decides to settle with a life sentence or to stage a third trial remains to be seen.