By AP/KWMU
St. Louis , MO – A divided appeals court has reinstated the death sentence for one of four men convicted in the St. Louis killings of two sisters at an abandoned Mississippi River bridge 13 years ago.
In a two-one ruling Thursday, the Eighth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Reginald Clemons returned to Missouri's death row at the Potosi Correctional Center.
The Eighth Circuit overturned a lower federal court's 2002 ruling that some would-be jurors were wrongly dismissed after voicing reservations about the death penalty. The appeals court found there was sufficient basis to exclude the prospective jurors in question.
Sisters Julie and Robin Kerry were pushed to their death off the old Chain of Rocks Bridge at St. Louis in 1991. Their cousin was also forced to jump, but he survived.
Four men were charged. Clemons, Antonio Richardson and Martin Gray were tried and convicted separately.
Gray awaits execution. Richardson is serving life in prison. The fourth man, Daniel Winfrey, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a 30-year in prison term.