USA - Federal. Judge Mark L. Wolf has vacated the death sentence of Gary Lee Sampson, 52, white.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf has formally vacated the death sentence of Gary Lee Sampson, 52, white. Judge Wolf took the decision on Oct. 20, 2011 (see) and today he issued the sentence. In July 2001 Sampson carjacked and murdered three people in New Hampshire and Massachusetts: Philip McCloskey ( 69), Jonathan Rizzo (19), and Robert Whitney (58) The murders took place over the course of a week, after each man picked him up hitchhiking. Sampson pleaded guilty during the 2003 trial (see December 23, 2003 and January 30, 2004). Prosecutors pursued the case against Sampson in federal court under a federal law allowing the death penalty when a murder is committed during a carjacking. Judge Wolf ruled that Sampson was denied his constitutional right to have his sentence decided by an impartial jury and that he is “entitled to a new trial to determine whether the death penalty is justified in his case”. In a motion for a new trial, Sampson’s lawyers argued that 3 jurors had given inaccurate answers to questions they were asked during the jury selection process. Wolf found that 1 of the jurors had intentionally and repeatedly answered questions dishonestly in an attempt to avoid talking about subjects that were painful to her. She never disclosed, for example, that her husband had a rifle and had threatened to shoot her, that she had ended her marriage because of her husband’s substance abuse and that her daughter had served time in prison because of a drug problem. Wolf said in his ruling that if the woman had disclosed those things during the jury selection process, the court would have found that there was a “high risk” that after listening to the evidence at Sampson’s trial, her decision on whether to sentence Sampson to death could have been influenced by her life experiences. Wolf said the woman likely would have been excused from serving on the jury. “In essence, despite dedicated efforts by the parties and the court to assure that the trial would be fair and the verdict final, it has now been proven that perjury by a juror resulted in a violation of Sampson’s constitutional right to have the issue of whether he should live or die decided by 12 women and men who were each capable of deciding that most consequential question impartially,” Wolf wrote. Sampson’s conviction for the murders still stands. The decision is stayed while the U.S. Attorney’s Office appeals. Sampson’s lawyers argued that a juror had lied on her questionnaire about her history as a victim of domestic violence. Sampson is on death row at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.