USA - Florida. The Florida Supreme Court overturned the death sentences imposed on Khalid Ali Pasha

The Florida Supreme Court today unanimously overturned the double death sentences imposed on Khalid Ali Pasha and sent the case back the Hillsborough County Circuit Court. Pasha, 66, black, was convicted of the August 23, 2002, stabbing deaths of his new wife Robin Canady, 43, and her daughter Ranesha Singleton, 20. The justices said Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente should have let Pasha fire his court-appointed attorney and represent himself in his October 2007 trial. "Pasha clearly expressed a desire to proceed pro se (represent himself) in order to avoid the proceedings with counsel he found to be unacceptable," the high court wrote in its 8-page ruling. "This error of the trial court requires reversal."