WARRICK COUNTY, IN – An attorney for a death-row inmate says his client's constitutional right to a presumption of innocence was violated because he was required to wear a stun belt to control his behavior during his triple-murder trial.
In 1997, a judge sentenced 42-year-old John Stephenson to death after a jury convicted him of killing three people. During Stephenson's trial in Warrick County, he was required to wear a stun belt under his clothes as a security measure. If he misbehaved, a deputy could have delivered an electric shock by remote control.

State public defender Steve Schutte argued yesterday that four to six of the original trial jurors saw the stun belt and realized what it was for -- which could have made them think Stephenson was dangerous.

The Deputy Attorney General, however, told justices that the stun belt did not deprive Stephenson of a fair trial. The court did not say when it would rule on the appeal.