USA - South Carolina. Judge James Williams today resentenced Clinton Robert Northcutt to death

Circuit Judge James Williams in the Lexington County courtroom today resentenced Clinton Robert Northcutt, 28, to death for the Jan. 7, 2001, murder of his 4-month-old daughter Breanna. The state Supreme Court on Feb. 20, 2007 (see) reversed his Nov. 15, 2003 (see) death sentence, ruling that the solicitor’s closing arguments were "overly zealous." Northcutt in his 2003 trial asked jurors to sentence him to death, though he didn't make the request in his resentencing hearing. The hearing was different from his trial in that Williams, not a jury, decided his fate. Williams said Northcutt was eligible for the death penalty under state law because he killed a child under 12 and committed the murder during the commission of torture. The then-20-year-old Northcutt confessed to investigators that he slapped, punched, choked, squeezed, shook and bit his daughter before breaking her back on a crib rail. He said he snapped in a fit of rage because she wouldn't stop crying.