Supreme Court considers sentence of man on death row since 1993

The Supreme Court will consider on April 27 whether a man who has been on death row since 1993 deserves a new sentencing hearing after claims that he received ineffective counsel during sentencing.

Danny Lee Jones was convicted of killing his friend Robert Weaver and Weaver's granddaughter and attempting to kill Weaver's grandmother during a visit in March 1992 when both were drinking and using methamphetamines.

Jones's public defender had no experience as a lead attorney in a capital case, and Jones was convicted on all charges.

Despite his inexperience, the attorney looked for mitigating circumstances before sentencing and found that Jones had been born to a 15-year-old mother in a complicated birth and had several head traumas that led to acting out behaviors when he was a teen.

The death sentence was given nonetheless, and the courts have gone back and forth twice over whether to give him a new sentencing hearing, including a Supreme Court review in 2011.

The Supreme Court will make a final ruling on the case by the end of June.