Judge Overturns Conviction, Criticizes Decision to Seek Federal Death Penalty

Stating that ​“this Court is unwill­ing to con­tort the law of fed­er­al kid­nap­ping,” and that fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors failed to present suf­fi­cient evi­dence to sup­port that charge dur­ing the recent cap­i­tal mur­der tri­al of Jay Lentz, a fed­er­al judge in Virginia has over­turned the jury’s guilty ver­dict in the case. In the rul­ing, U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee crit­i­cized the gov­ern­ment for try­ing what he deemed a local homi­cide case in fed­er­al court. Earlier, the jury had reject­ed the gov­ern­men­t’s request for a death sen­tence. (Washington Post, July 23, 2003) Despite a more aggres­sive pur­suit of this pun­ish­ment by the Justice Department, juries in 16 of the last 17 fed­er­al cap­i­tal tri­als have declined to impose the death penal­ty. See Federal Death Penalty.