USA - Kentucky. Judge Karen Conrad threw out the death sentence of Miguel "Mickey" Soto, 39, hispanic.

Oldham County Circuit Judge Karen Conrad threw out the death sentence of Miguel "Mickey" Soto, 39, after concluding that a juror gave inaccurate statements during pretrial questioning. Judge Conrad also found that the same juror in the case of Soto failed to follow his oath and consider mitigating evidence in the case. Conrad ordered a new sentencing hearing for Soto. Soto was sentenced to death in 2000 for killing Armott and Edna Porter on June 29, 1999. Jurors also sentenced Soto to 50 years in prison for attempted murder in the wounding of his ex-wife, Armotta Porter, and firing a shot in the direction of his then-3-year-old daughter, Brianna Porter. In her decision, Judge Karen Conrad wrote that Miguel Soto deserves a new sentencing trial because juror Timmy Walker did not consider mitigating evidence, believing in “an eye for an eye” in cases like Soto's. Conrad wrote that Walker was ineligible to serve on Soto's jury in 2000, resulting in a violation of Soto's constitutional rights to a fair trial. According to Walker's statements in a 2005 affidavit, he believed in an automatic death penalty for intentional murder at the time of the trial, Conrad wrote. In the affidavit, Walker said “nothing could have been presented as mitigating evidence that would have changed my mind and made me think he should get something other than the death sentence.”