Larry Douglas Lucas

Time for me to get back in the saddle...I'll try to be more consistent about posting. Who needs my job anyway?

On to the task at hand...

The California Supreme Court has overturned its second death sentence in as many weeks. The Court unianimously vacated the death sentence of Larry Douglas Lucas who was sent to death row for the 1986 stabbings of his eldery neighbors. The Court held that the jury did not have enough information when it handed Lucas the death penalty because it had not been made aware of the abuse he endured as a child. The Court found that had the jury been aware of these mitigating circumstances they might not have given Lucas the death sentence. Faulting his attorneys for ill preparation, the Court stated that evidence of Lucas's childhood that not presented to the jury is exactly the type of evidence that juries find compelling in determining whether to sentence someone to death. 

Death penalty tossed for double murderer