USA - North Carolina. Elmer Ray McNeill, 42, white, was resentenced to life in prison

Elmer Ray McNeill, 42, white, was resentenced to life in prison after after Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby agreed to drop efforts to execute him. McNeill was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of Michael Truelove, 20, and John Ray, 27, during a robbery on the night of Sept. 19, 1993. McNeill was sentenced to death in 1996, but a federal court, on June 4, 2009 (see), reversed the sentence, finding that his defense was constitutionally inadequate because it failed to uncover and present evidence at trial that McNeill suffered from depression and physical and childhood sexual abuse. The state initially announced it wanted a new sentencing hearing, but the district attorney recently said he would be satisfied with a life sentence, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents McNeill.