A federal judge in St. Louis says a convicted murderer should either get a new sentencing hearing or be sentenced to life in prison. The death sentence of William Weaver has been thrown out. He’s one of two men convicted of murdering a potential witness in a drug trial in 1988. The judge says then-prosecutor Buzz Westfall introduced information to the jury that didn’t belong in the sentencing hearing after Weaver’s conviction. Westfall is now the St. Louis County Executive. The present prosecutor is deciding whether to let Weaver stay in prison for life or try to reassemble the panel of witnesses for a new hearing. The death sentence of Weaver’s co-defendant was overturned earlier under the same kind of court ruling. He’s doing life.
