The Supreme Court has refused Oklahoma's plea to reinstate the death sentence for a man convicted of killing two people in 1994.
The justices did not comment Monday in leaving in place a federal appeals court order granting a new sentencing hearing for Rocky Eugene Dodd.
The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Dodd's death sentence because seven relatives of Dodd's victims were allowed to call for the death penalty in their testimony during the sentencing phase of Dodd's trial.
Dodd received two death sentences for killing neighbors Shane McInturff and Keri Sloniker, who were found with their throats cut in an apartment complex in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond.
The case is Trammell v. Dodd, 13-850.
