Death Penalty The Florida Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of murderer William Coday ruling that the trial judge improperly refused to allow six mental health experts to testify at the sentencing hearing. The defendant's guilt is not disputed. According to a story by Diana Moskovitz in today's Miami Herald, Coday beat and stabbed a 29-year-old woman to death nine years ago.

Alabama murderer Larry Eugene Hutcherson was executed on Thursday evening. As reported in yesterday's post, Hutcherson nearly decapitated an 89-year-old woman in 1992. More details are available in a story by Mike Carson in today's Birmingham News.

Back in Alabama The state Supreme Court has let stand an injunction requiring that felons be allowed to register to vote if their crime was one that a precedent or Attorney General opinion has indicated is not a crime of "moral turpitude." That is the criterion in the state statute, but the statute does not define moral turpitude. The secretary of state had been applying a blanket ban. The trial court judge also ordered that all felons be allowed to register until the legislature clarifies the law but stayed that portion of his order. The opinion does not appear to be available at any free site, but details are provided in a report by Associated Press writer Jay Reeves.