JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court has thrown out the death sentence handed down to Roger Lee Gillett and ordered him re-sentenced.
Gillett was convicted in 2007 in Forrest County on two counts of capital murder for his role in the deaths of a Hattiesburg couple and the transporting of their bodies to Russell County in a freezer. While in custody in Kansas, he attempted to escape. That crime was one of the aggravating factors prosecutors presented jurors to support the death penalty.
The Supreme Court, in its 6-3 decision Thursday, says not every escape is considered a crime of violence under Kansas law. Therefore, wrote Justice Ann Lamar, the Kansas crime cannot be used to support a death sentence in Mississippi.
The ruling came in Gillett’s post-conviction appeal.