COURT THROWS OUT FEDERAL DEATH SENTENCE

Atlanta (AP) - A panel of federal judges on Friday overturned the death
sentence of a man who was the first person sentenced to execution by the
United States under a 1988 federal drug law.

The United States has not executed anyone in36 years.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that
David Ronald Chandler of Piedmont, Ala., was not properly defended by his
attorney during his dentencing phase.

Chandler's conviction for arranging the slaying of an informant, however,
still stands and the case was sent back to the lower court for resentencing.

Chandler was convicted in 1991 of operating a large marijuana ring in
northeast Alabama and arranging the murder o9f Marlin Shuler, a member of
his network who became a government informant. The man who killed Shuler is
serving 25 years to life.

Chandler was the first person sentenced under the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act,
which allows the death penalty for killings associated with a criminal
enterprise.