Judge formally sentences Mitchell to death

Wednesday, November 20th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An Oklahoma County judge has formally sentenced to death a man whose original death sentence was overturned because of testimony in his case by a fire police chemist.

District Judge Susan Caswell set a Jan. 7 execution date for Alfred Brian Mitchell. The date comes 12 years after Elaine Marie Scott was fatally bludgeoned at an Oklahoma City community center.

Mitchell's death sentence will automatically be appealed.

A jury in 1992 found Mitchell guilty of first-degree murder and recommended he be sentenced to death.

A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld Mitchell's murder conviction, but ordered a new sentencing trial because of testimony by former police chemist Joyce Gilchrist.

Gilchrist's work has come under scrutiny after DNA tests refuted testimony she gave that helped convict a man of rape. The man was released from prison last year after serving 14 years in prison for rape.

A jury on Oct. 31 again recommended Mitchell die for Scott's killing.

``I hope that some day you will understand the enormity and gravity of what you have done,'' Caswell told Mitchell on Monday.