USA - Nevada. The Nevada Supreme Court has vacated the death sentence of Frederick Paine.

The Nevada Supreme Court has vacated the death sentence and ordered a new penalty hearing for Frederick Paine. Paine was sentenced to die for fatally shooting a cabdriver during a 1990 robbery. In an unanimous ruling, justices said Paine was ineligible for the death penalty because "aggravators" used by a 3-judge panel to impose the sentence were invalid. Paine's death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court twice before. But in today's ruling, justices noted the court has since overruled previous legal findings it relied on in affirming the sentence in its earlier rulings.