Judge orders new sentencing in officer's death

The judge said the different sentences conflicted.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A man given the death penalty for killing a police officer should be resentenced because of inconsistencies in the two sentences he received at trial in federal court, a judge ruled.
Daryl Lawrence was convicted of murder with malice during a violent crime and murder during armed robbery in the shooting death of officer Bryan Hurst during a bank robbery in 2005.
Lawrence, 32, could have been sentenced to death or life in prison. The jury in the case recommended the death penalty for the first murder conviction and life in prison for the second.
The death sentence was set aside by U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost, who said the different sentences conflicted. Frost ordered a new jury be convened to reconsider Lawrence's punishment.
"There is no valid explanation for the jury's inconsistent findings ... other than complete arbitrariness," the judge said.
What's next
Diane Menashe, one of Lawrence's attorneys, said she would research the judge's decision to consider whether to argue for a new trial. She said she was unsure how a jury that hadn't heard the case can sentence Lawrence.
The U.S. attorney's office plans to confer with Hurst's family and death penalty experts in Washington before deciding how to proceed, spokesman Fred Alverson said.
Douglas Berman, an Ohio State University law professor who specializes in sentencing and criminal law, said the judge was justified in his ruling because death penalty cases are handled in separate trial and penalty phases.
During the trial, authorities said Lawrence entered a Fifth Third bank, ran at Hurst and shot the officer in the chest above his bulletproof vest. Hurst, 33, was working off duty as a bank guard to earn extra money to support his wife and then-6-month-old daughter.
Lawrence also received a life sentence for the robbery and an additional 65-year prison term for three separate robberies from 2004 and 2005.