USA - Ohio. Maxwell White Jr., originally sentenced to death, has been resentenced to life imprisonment.

Maxwell White Jr., originally sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of a state trooper has been resentenced to life imprisonment. A 3-judge panel sentenced White, 47, to a life term without the possibility of parole for 30 years in the aggravated murder of State Highway Patrol Trooper James Gross. Gross, 27, was shot to death on Jan. 19, 1996, after pulling over White's car for reckless driving. White was sentenced to death, but the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the sentence on December 8, 2005 (see), ruling that the trial court had erred by allowing a juror biased in favor of the death penalty to be seated in the case. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that White could again face the death penalty at his resentencing. However, a negotiated plea agreement led to the life-prison sentence. White waived his right to any state- or federal-court appeals of his new sentence, said Ashland County Prosecutor Ramona Rogers. "He does not qualify (for parole) until he is age 81," she said. "17 years after the conviction, the surviving family members (of Gross) were really looking for some finality."