USA - Texas. The Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the death sentence of Christian Olsen, 24, white

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned 8-1 the death sentence of Christian Olsen, 24, white, because jurors should have heard from an expert who believed the man was a victim of sexual abuse from an older girlfriend. Olsen was sentenced to death on March 3, 2009 (see) for the June 3, 2007 murder of Etta Jean Westbrook, 68. He admitted to the killing in a tearful confession that prosecutors played to jurors. A few weeks after his arrest, he was also charged with the murder of 63-year-old Geraldine Lloyd, the mother of Olsen's girlfriend, Kelly Sifuentez, who was found buried in her own backyard. Authorities testified that she was probably killed in mid- to late January of 2007 and that Olsen lived in her house with her daughter and grandchildren until he was arrested. In fact, the two had been charged in the murder of Sifuentez's mother six months earlier. Sifuentez was later sentenced, while prosecutors didn't pursue a trial for Olsen since he was already on death row. Defense attorneys argued that Olsen had been manipulated into committing the murders. Olsen and Sifuentez had a sexual relationship that began when he was 14, they said. She was in her mid-30s at the time. But the jury never heard from Donna Vandiver, a criminal justice expert at Texas State University who was one of the defense's key witnesses. Vandiver reviewed Olsen's case and concluded that Sifuentez's actions toward Olsen were consistent with the way that a female sex offender "grooms" her victims.