Man's death sentence tossed after 23 years in prison
Web-posted Thursday, August 26, 2010
By Michael Graczyk
The Associated Press
HOUSTON - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday vacated the death sentence of a Dallas man who's been on death row more than two decades for fatally stabbing the wife of a prominent Dallas civil rights lawyer who was killed in the same attack.
Jurors who in 1987 convicted Kenneth Dewayne Thomas, now 49, of capital murder had no way when deliberating punishment to consider mitigating evidence that he had low intelligence, brain damage and mental illness, the state's highest criminal court said.
Thomas' case now returns to his trial court in Dallas for a new punishment hearing.
His trial was held during a time when trial rules for Texas capital cases were evolving, particularly in the area of mitigation evidence and how it should be applied to punishment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has visited the issue several times, refining trial procedures through their rulings, and several cases of that era have been returned to trial courts for new punishment hearings.
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