The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence awarded to Roger Wheeler, of Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday, Dec. 14. This decision of the Supreme Court marks an end to the litigation that had delayed carrying out the death sentence that had been given to Wheeler for the murder of two people in 1997.
Wheeler was convicted when his DNA matched that found at the scene of the murders. Upon his conviction, Wheeler was sentenced to death by the trial judge. The Kentucky High Court had confirmed this finding of the trial judge. However, upon an appeal to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, the death sentence was disallowed, according to the Associated Press.
The reason provided by the 6th Circuit Court was that the trial judge had incorrectly excluded the views of one of the jurors that had been a part of the original trial. The exclusion of the views of this one juror had therefore resulted in a violation of the impartial jury protection offered by the Sixth Amendment to the American Constitution.
However, the Supreme Court held on Monday that the procedure followed by the trial court judge was correct. The Supreme Court held that the trial court judge "considered with care the juror's testimony... was fair in the exercise of her 'broad discretion' in determining whether the juror was qualified to serve in this capital case." The Supreme Court also found that the juror's responses during the trial were - at a minimum - "ambiguous as to whether he would be able to give appropriate consideration to imposing the death penalty," according to Courthouse News Service.
This case related to the murders of a couple living together in an apartment in Louisville, Ky., named Nigel Malone and Nairobi Warfield. Warfield was pregnant at the time. A pair of scissors had been stuck inside of Warfield's neck and she had been strangled to death. Malone had been stabbed multiple times, causing his death, according to Reuters.
