DOVER, Del. (AP) - Delaware's Supreme Court has rejected the latest appeal from a double murderer who narrowly avoided the death penalty for crimes he committed as a juvenile.
In a one-page order dated Tuesday, the court upheld a judge's summary dismissal last year of an appeal by Michael Jones. Jones argued, among other things, that his lawyers were ineffective and his life sentence was unfair.
The 35-year-old Jones was convicted of the drug-related killings of Cedric Reinford and Maneeka Plant. Plant's late grandparents were state representatives Al and Hazel Plant.
At the time of the 1999 killings in Wilmington, Jones was 17. A jury recommended that Jones be executed. But before he could be sentenced, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juvenile offenders.