2 death sentences were canceled and a 3rd was upheld...

2 death sentences were canceled and a 3rd was upheld as the Nevada Supreme Court revised state laws to comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on executions.
In 1 case, the state high court called for a new penalty hearing for Donte Johnson, convicted of the 1998 execution-style slaying of four men in Las Vegas.
After a jury couldn't decide on Johnson's punishment, a three-judge panel - formed in line with existing state law - sentenced him to death.
But earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment sentences imposed by judges instead of jurors are unconstitutional.
In upholding Johnson's murder conviction, justices ordered a new penalty hearing before a new jury. Johnson was found guilty of killing Matthew Mowen, 19, Jeffrey Biddle, 19, Tracey Gorringer, 20 and Peter Talamantez 20. 2 others, Sikia Smith and Terrell Young, were convicted of murder and received life sentences.
In a 4-3 decision, justices erased the death sentence imposed on Wilbert Leslie for the August 1994 shooting death of William Prewitt during a robbery.
In the 3rd case, the high court unanimously upheld the death sentence ordered for Lawrence Colwell Jr., convicted of strangling Frank Rosenstock, 76.
Colwell also argued the U.S. Supreme Court decision against death sentences imposed by judges applied in his case, but the Nevada high court disagreed.
Prosecutors didn't plan to seek the death penalty in the case, but Colwell offered to plead guilty to all charges if prosecutors would push for death by injection.
After his conviction, he asked for a quick penalty hearing and refused to offer any mitigating evidence to the 3-judge panel handling the penalty phase.
Justices said Colwell's conviction, unlike Johnson's, became final prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision. And while the ruling can be applied retroactively in some cases, justices said Colwell doesn't qualify.
When Colwell pleaded guilty, he waived his right to a jury trial. The state high court said that as a result nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court decision "undermines the lawfulness of his resulting conviction and sentence."