From the LVRJ: "The Nevada Supreme Court has thrown out the death penalty conviction of a Las Vegas man who killed a cabdriver in 1990, ruling that the circumstances of the crime did not warrant capital punishment.
Justices in a 7-0 decision vacated the death penalty given Frederick Paine and ordered his case be remanded to District Court for a new penalty hearing consistent with the decision"
Well, what did this thug do?: In two previous penalty hearings, Paine, now 39, was sentenced to die for killing cabbie Kenneth Marcum during a Jan. 19, 1990, robbery. The cabdriver was shot in the head. He was robbed of $45.
Ok, but the justices, who never went to law school said this: Justices said there were no valid “aggravating circumstances” that gave rise to two past decisions to sentence Paine to die.
Under state law, prosecutors must show that aggravating factors, such as torture, existed in the crime to impose the death penalty.
In Paine’s case, a panel of judges and a jury ruled that the killing was “random and without purpose,” an aggravating factor that could be used to give him capital punishment.
But justices said that was an error.
“This is not a situation where Paine chose his victim 'without a specific purpose or objective,’" according to the decision. “The specific purpose was robbery.”
So, being robbed at gun point is not torture? I am sure the cabbie was pretty cool with this situation since he was not being "tortured". The justices apparently never heard of mental torture.
What a bunch of idiots. The Supreme Court, that is.
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