USA - Texas. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the death sentence of Stanley Griffin

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals voted 6-3 to overturn the death sentence of Stanley Griffin saying there wasn't enough evidence to prove capital murder. On June 29, 2012 a Brazos County jury gave the death penalty to Griffin, now 50, Black, for murdering Jennifer Marie Hailey, 29, and violently assaulting her 9-year-old son on Sept. 19, 2010. Today, the ruling throws out the death sentence for Griffin, though it agrees he intentionally killed Hailey. Griffin now will face 5 years to life in prison for the crime. Hailey's 9-year-old son - who awakened during the incident - was twice ordered by Griffin back to his room and eventually was stabbed by Griffin with a gardening trowel. The boy lost a significant amount of blood, but regained consciousness and called his grandmother, who called 911. To convict someone of capital murder, the state had to prove that Griffin killed a person while also committing another felony, such as kidnapping, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson or burglary. Capital cases don't allow for aggravated assaults, injury to a child or attempted murder as the secondary crime. At issue for the 6 appellate judges who remanded the case back to a Brazos County courtroom was whether the action taken by Griffin against the boy could be defined as a kidnapping, which is what prosecutors asserted and jurors believed.