USA - California. The California Supreme Court overturned the death penalty for Gary Galen Brents, 50, black.

The California Supreme Court voted unanimously to overturn the death penalty for Gary Galen Brents, 50, black. The high court ruled that Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan failed to properly instruct the jury that recommended the death sentence for Brents. Brents was sentenced to death in 2000 for the 1995 murder of Kelly Gordon. Gordon was a prostitute who worked for Brents and had agreed to sell $100 in methamphetamine for him. When he tried to collect, she had neither the drugs nor the money. Brents then tried to suffocate her, choked her and finally put her in the trunk of a car he doused with gasoline and ignited.