USA - Nevada. Kelly Rhyne, a former death row inmate, has accepted a plea deal

Kelly Rhyne, a former Nevada death row inmate, has accepted a plea deal after his earlier 1st-degree murder conviction was overturned on appeal. Rhyne, today 55, White, pleaded guilty this week in Elko District Court to a lesser offense of 2nd-degree murder. He was sentenced to death after his 2000 conviction in the 1998 beating death of Donald "Lobo" Brown, whose body was stuffed into an alley trash bin behind an Elko bar. But the Nevada Supreme Court sent the case back to district court in January after finding his lawyers were unqualified to handle a death penalty case. Under the plea deal, both the prosecution and defense will recommend he be sentenced to life in prison with parole possible after 10 years. That means Rhyne, who was on death row for over a decade, will soon be eligible to go before the parole board. His sentencing date has not been scheduled yet. Senior District Judge Norman Robison, who will preside over the sentencing, ruled in 2010 that Rhyne was entitled to a new trial because he was mentally incompetent at his 1st trial and his lawyers were ineffective. In addition, Robison raised questions about transcripts, letters and other documents that were deemed confidential at Elko District Judge Mike Memeo's instruction and not included as part of the appeal record. Robison said withholding the confidential files from the record deprived the Supreme Court and others from understanding what had transpired. He also said jurors never learned that Rhyne suffered from organic brain damage in addition to chronic mental illness.