USA - Texas. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the death sentence of Gene Wilford Hathorn Jr.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday overturned the death sentence (not the guilty verdict) of Gene Wilford Hathorn Jr., on the grounds that that jurors at his trial nearly 24 years ago weren't given adequate instructions. The state's highest criminal court says a Trinity County jury that decided Hathorn should be put to death should have been allowed to more thoroughly consider evidence that Hathorn was abused as a child. Hathorn, 48, was convicted of the 1984 shooting death of his father, Gene Hathorn Sr. Hathorn also was charged but never tried for the deaths of his stepmother, Linda Sue, and half brother, Marcus, who also were gunned down in the attack at the family home. Hathorn and his friend James Beathard, were sentenced to die for the 1984 rampage. Beathard was executed in 1999. Hathorn had come to media attention last year (see Sept. 4, 2008) when he accepted to donate his body after the execution to an artist who would have transformed it into fish food.