Behind Leslie Pipersburgh and Patrick Robateau, they were tops on the hangman's list, but now Jeremy Harris and Deon Slusher will live.
In January Justice Troadio John Gonzalez sentenced the pair to death by hanging for the execution style murder of businessman Phillip Chin. Today the Appeals Court quashed that sentence and commuted their sentence to life in prison.
Attorneys Antoinette Moore and Jeremy Courtenay argued to the appeal justices that the sentencing was unfair. Unfair they said because their clients were denied an opportunity to speak up at the sentencing on January 26th and a social worker called on their behalf was also denied to speak. And since they cannot be sent back to the Supreme Court for sentencing, Justice Elliot Motley said that through no fault of their own, they were deprived of the opportunity to get a life sentence and they should now get the benefit of the doubt.
That has literally saved their necks and tonight Harris and Slusher are off death row and will instead spend life in prison. Harris and Slusher are convicted of burglarizing Chin's Sandhill home and then killing him execution style.