Death sentence overturned for Oklahoma murderer

DENVER (AP) -- The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the death sentence of an Oklahoma man, concluding that prosecutors deprived him of a fair trial by refusing to turn over evidence against their key witness.

The appeals court also ordered a new trial for Kenneth Nuckols, who is already serving a life sentence in another murder case.

In 1997, U.S. District Judge Lee West ordered Nuckols to be resentenced nearly four years after his death sentence for the 1982 slaying of Freddie Howell was vacated.

Under West's ruling, Nuckols was to receive no more than life in prison because life without parole was not an option when he was first convicted of the murder in 1983. However, assistant attorney general Sandra Howard asked the appeals court to determine whether West's decision to vacate was correct.

The appeals court dismissed that case, saying it lacked jurisdiction to consider a nonfinal order. After the U.S. District Court addressed the remaining claims and denied relief to Nuckols, the case was brought to the appeals court again.

In its current decision the appeals court decided to reverse Nuckols' sentence because prosecutors did not reveal that its main witness, a deputy sheriff and an acquaintance of Nuckols, had a criminal background. He had sold stolen guns for a woman who used the money to hire Nuckols to kill her husband in 1982.

Nuckols pleaded guilty to Roy Maxwell's murder and received a sentence of life imprisonment.

The court also found that the witness coerced Nuckols into waiving his Miranda rights in the Howell killing, though Nuckols had told the him on several occasions he did not want to talk about it.

In 1982, Nuckols and Greg Campbell allegedly stopped to help Howell, who was having car trouble. After fixing the headlights, all three men went to a gas station to buy beer.

Prosecutors charged that Nuckols and Campbell beat Howell to death with a ball peen hammer. His body was found in a car along Interstate 40 in Seminole County.

Campbell pleaded guilty in the slaying and received a life sentence.