USA - Kansas. The Kansas Supreme Court vacated the death penalty sentence of Sidney Gleason

The Kansas Supreme Court vacated the death penalty sentence of Sidney Gleason, 32, Black. Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts sentenced Gleason to death in August 2006 for the February 21, 2004 deaths of Mikiala Martinez, 19, and her boyfriend Darren R. Wornkey. Co-defendant Damian Thompson reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that resulted in a life sentence, avoiding the death penalty. The court, in a 106-page divided opinion, found the district court failed to properly instruct the jury on mitigating circumstances and that "a reasonable likelihood exists that this erroneous instruction precluded the jury from considering relevant mitigating evidence."