USA - North Carolina. The state Supreme Court overturned Danny Hembree’s murder conviction and death sentence

The state Supreme Court overturned Danny Hembree’s murder conviction and death sentence today in the October 2009 death of 17-year-old Heather Catterton. Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell said he plans to take Hembree to trial again but will not seek another death sentence against the man already convicted of killing a second woman and at one time accused of killing a third. “After reading this opinion, it tells me it’s a waste of time for me to seek the death penalty,” Bell said. A 4-2 decision pointed out three specific court errors that, when combined, deprived Hembree of a fair trial, according to the ruling. Prosecutors tried to show Catterton’s death was part of a common “plan, scheme or design” at Hembree’s 2011 trial. In presenting evidence in Catterton’s murder trial, prosecutors also talked about the killing of Randi Dean Saldana. Evidence presented during court indicated both women had sex with Hembree in exchange for drugs. But the court found prosecutors focused too heavily on Saldana’s death, which led the jury to convict Hembree based on evidence of her slaying rather than Catterton’s death. Hembree would plead guilty in 2013 to killing Saldana and receive a prison sentence of more than 26 years. The court also took exception to the testimony of Saldana’s sister, Shellie Nations. Nations testified that Saldana was a person of good character, which the court found should not have been allowed because it was not related to Catterton’s death. The third error had to do with statements the prosecution made to the jury during closing arguments of the guilt or innocence phase of the trial. The appellate court found prosecutors intimated too strongly that Hembree had lied on the stand in collaboration with his defense counsel. On December 5 ,2009 Hembree confesses to police to killing Catterton, Saldana in November 2009, and a third woman, Deborah Ratchford, who was killed in 1992, after he had been charged in an unrelated series of armed robberies in Mecklenburg County. He would recant those confessions at trial, saying he only made them to try to negotiate a lighter sentence for the armed robberies. He also confessed to killing a third woman, whose death had remained unsolved for 20 years. Charges in the third woman’s death would be dismissed when Hembree pleaded guilty to murder in Saldana’s death. Hembree testified at Catterton’s trial that he awakened to find her dead after a night of sex and crack cocaine use. He admitted to trying to hide her body. Catterton’s autopsy report lists her cause of death as “undetermined.” A defense expert witness testified Catterton died from a cocaine overdose. Hembree testified he accidently killed Saldana while choking her during a sex act. On February 5, 2013 Hembree pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Saldana. Judge sentences him to more than 26 years in prison. Prosecutors dismiss murder charges against Hembree in 1992 cemetery slashing death of Ratchford. Hembree remains in prison for conviction in Saldana’s death.