USA - Federal. In Louisiana U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan has tossed the federal death sentence of John Wayne Johnson, 58, black

In Louisiana U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan has tossed the federal death sentence of John Wayne Johnson, 58, black, convicted of killing an off-duty police officer during a botched bank robbery. Johnson has long admitted to participating in the January 8, 2004 robbery at a bank in New Orleans. Orleans Parish sheriff's Lt. Sydney Zaffuto, 50, who was working an off-duty security detail, was killed by a bullet Johnson fired. The jury that convicted Johnson in May 2009 recommended death by injection. U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan left the conviction intact, but tossed out the jury's punishment recommendation. Johnson and two cohorts entered the bank on the morning of Jan. 8, 2004. Zuffuto, 50, was one of two deputies working paid security details. Zuffuto was almost immediately disarmed during the robbery, and his colleague was the first to open fire, according to testimony. Johnson, who was wounded in the gunfight, fired at Zuffuto. One of the bullets ricocheted off the hand grip of Zuffuto's pistol and struck him in the chest, leading the defense to contend the shooting was accidental. Jones pleaded guilty in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence. Smith is awaiting trial and prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty. Johnson's attorneys appealed the conviction, in part, by arguing that the government has a history of disproportionately seeking death sentences against blacks. Johnson is black. Zuffuto was white. The defense argued that federal prosecutors handled the case instead of the Orleans Parish district attorney's office, because chances were greater of selecting a mostly white jury from the Eastern Judicial District of New Orleans, which encompasses 13 parishes. (see also May 27, 2009)