Maryland's highest court ordered a new sentencing hearing Monday for a Baltimore man who had been sentenced to death in the killing of his girlfriend's young daughter. In a decision so lengthy and complex that one lawyer compared it to a phone book, the Maryland Court of Appeals provided different reasons for overturning Jamaal K. Abeokuto's death sentence.

Three judges decided that Abeokuto's decision to have a judge determine his punishment did not amount to a "knowing and voluntary waiver" of his right to be sentenced by a jury. Two of those judges, and another, agreed -- as they have in the last several death penalty cases to come before the court -- with a legal argument that Maryland's death penalty sentencing procedure is flawed.

The votes of those four judges amounted to a majority of the seven-member panel that was enough to rescind the death sentence of Abeokuto, 26, who was convicted of the 2002 killing of 8-year-old Marciana Ringo.

In one opinion issued Monday, three judges found that Abeokuto did not knowingly or voluntarily waive his right to a jury sentencing because the trial judge failed to ascertain whether Abeokuto was still taking anti-psychotic medication and, if so, whether he was experiencing any side effects that might cloud his ability to understand the proceedings.