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| N.J. Supreme Court Overturns Death Penalty of Cop Killer |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/01/2002 |
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The state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of the only woman on New Jersey's death row, a transsexual go-go dancer who pleaded guilty to killing two police officers. The court ruled 5-0 on Tuesday that jurors deciding the sentence of Leslie Ann Nelson, 44, of Haddon Heights, could have been confused by instructions given by the judge. Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz and Associate Justice Peter G. Verniero, both former attorneys general, did not participate in the ruling. In 1998, the state Supreme Court threw out Nelson's original death sentence after finding that prosecutors withheld information that might have changed jurors' minds. She was sentenced to death a second time in 2001. In this latest appeal, Nelson's lawyers argued that James P. Lynch, first assistant Camden County prosecutor, made unfair comments in his closing remarks to the jury, that the judge excluded pertinent evidence and that the death penalty is not appropriate for Nelson because of her ''severe mental illness.'' The court did not rule on that issue Tuesday. Attorneys for the state had maintained that Nelson received a fair trial. Nelson was known as Glenn Nelson until a 1992 sex-change operation. She pleaded guilty in 1997 to killing Haddon Heights Patrolman John Norcross and Camden County prosecutor's office investigator John McLaughlin on April 20, 1995. She opened fire on officers with an AK-47 rifle and a 9mm handgun after they went to her house to search for illegal weapons. The state Supreme Court overturned her death sentence in 1998 because Nelson's lawyers were not told that a policeman who survived the shootout had sued the Haddon Heights Police Department and Camden County prosecutor's office, maintaining that officers had not been properly trained to handle the situation. |
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