USA - Kentucky. David Eugene Matthews, 62, white, on death row for 29 years has been granted a new trial

David Eugene Matthews, 62, white, on death row for 29 years has been granted a new trial. A split U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Matthews retried within 180 days in the deaths of his estranged wife Mary "Marlene" Matthews, and mother-in-law, Magdalene Cruse, on June 29, 1981. Judge Eric Clay wrote that the trial judge misinterpreted Kentucky's law on an extreme emotional distress defense and allowed prosecutors to claim during closing arguments that Matthews and his attorneys concocted the issue in an attempt to avoid conviction.