Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A convicted murderer who spent 31 years on death row in Nevada has been resentenced to life in prison without parole after a federal appeals court sent his case back to a jury in Las Vegas.
John Valerio is now 52. He learned his new sentence Monday in Clark County District Court.
He was 22 when he was convicted and sentenced in 1988 for killing 26-year-old Karen Sue Blackwell in 1986 by stabbing her some 45 times.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld Valerio’s conviction, but overturned his sentence.
The court said that asking a jury to decide whether the crime showed “depravity of mind” was unconstitutionally vague.
Valerio told his new jury that he changed mentally, physically and spiritually behind bars.
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