USA - Kansas. Crawford County District Judge Donald Noland upheld a jury's recommendation and issued a death sentence to Gary Kleypas

Crawford County District Judge Donald Noland upheld a recommendation by a Wyandotte County jury in issuing the death sentence to Gary Kleypas. Kleypas, now 52, was originally sentenced to death in 1997 for the March 1996 rape and murder of 20-year-old Carrie Williams. But he was one of several death row inmates affected by the December 17, 2004 (see) Kansas Supreme Court finding the Kansas death penalty as unconstitutional. That ruling was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006, which also threw out the death penalty verdict because of juror instruction error. That set the stage for Kleypas's September re-sentencing trial in Wyandotte County, where a jury recommended the death penalty. When Kleypas was 21, he was convicted of killing a Missouri woman and was sent to prison, where he stayed until he was paroled at age 36. (see also Dec. 28, 2001)