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Top CourtRules OnDeath PleaCOLUMBIA (AP) - The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that only a judge may impose a life or death sentence on a defendant who pleads guilty to a death penalty crime.The court issued the decision Monday, when it overturned a death sentence imposed by a jury on Wardell Patterson Jr., who had pleaded guilty to the Aug. 18, 1980, armed robbery and murder of Fort Mills convenience store clerk Ted Bryant Graham.Although Patterson’s guilty plea wasn’t appealed, the justices also overturned it.“We hold appellant’s guilty plea and sentence must be vacated because a significant inducement for entering the plea was the condition that the jury determine punishment, an impermissible condition under the statutory mandate that
Newspaper Details
Aiken Standard
Aiken, South Carolina, US
Tue, Sep 14, 1982
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Cornell U.
NY, USA 25 Feb 2021
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