USA - Georgia. In a 2-1 decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today reinstated the death sentence against Lawrence Joseph Jefferson

Death penalty reinstated. In a 2-1 decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today reinstated the death sentence against Lawrence Joseph Jefferson. Jefferson, 42, was sentenced to death in March 1986 in Cobb County for the May 1, 1985 robbery and killing of his construction job supervisor Edward Taulbee, 37. The Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned a federal judge's May 10, 2007 ruling that found Jefferson's lawyers provided ineffective legal assistance at trial. Ed Carnes, an 11th Circuit judge, issued a strong dissent in a rare vote to overturn a death sentence. He wrote that Jefferson's lawyers should have had their client examined for neurological damage that occurred when Jefferson's head was run over by a car when he was 2 years old. If so, Carnes wrote, the jury would have heard that the injury left Jefferson with an abnormally enlarged skull and brain damage that had a profound and lifelong impact on his behavior, including learning disabilities, diminished impulse control and intermittent outbursts of rage.