Mo. Supreme Court upholds new hearing for death row inmate

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The state Supreme Court upholds a decision awarding a new sentencing hearing for a death row inmate convicted of strangling a 13-year-old girl.

Travis Glass was sentenced to die for the May 2001 murder of Steffini Wilkins, of Hannibal.

But a lower court judge overturned his death sentence last year on grounds that his attorney should have called additional witnesses during the sentencing phase of his trial.

The Supreme Court upheld that ruling in a 4-3 decision.

The dissenting judges disagreed with the decision that Glass' attorney was ineffective. They said his death sentence should have been upheld.