USA - Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated the death sentence of Harold Murray.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated the death sentence of Harold Murray. Murray, now 36, was convicted in April 2009 and sentenced on July 21, 2009 (see) for the Jan. 31, 2005 murder of Shawne T. Mims, 33; Jennifer Pennington, 30; and Pennington's unborn daughter on. Police learned that Mims and Pennington were a part of a group who robbed two drug dealers on Jan. 30, 2005. Court documents cite revenge as the motive for the killings. Montgomery County Court Judge Steven T. O'Neill sentenced Murray to two death sentences, one life prison sentence, and one prison sentence of 42 to 84 years. The death sentence for the fetus child was later vacated and changed to life in prison. In overturning the death sentence, the Court wrote that the commonwealth should not have been able introduce the death penalty for the killing of the unborn child. The error was later fixed and Murray was given life in prison for the murder of the unborn child. "First, Appellant argues that the jury's erroneous belief that it was authorized to sentence Appellant to death for the murder of Pennington's unborn child impacted and tainted the jury's consideration of the death penalty for Pennington's murder," the appeal states. "Accordingly, we affirm Appellant’s convictions," he wrote. "We vacate the judgment of sentence only as it relates to the imposition of the death penalty upon Appellant for the murder of Jennifer Pennington, and remand this case to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas for a new penalty hearing concerning that conviction." A status hearing to determine a date for a new sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 31.