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Inmate's Attorneys Seek Peek At Prosecution Case

 

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Attorneys for an inmate accused of killing a corrections officer are seeking a hearing that will give them a look at the prosecution's case -- and a chance to persuade a judge to take the death penalty off the table.

 

The Baltimore Sun reports that the hearing, requested by lawyers for Lee Edward Stephens, is now allowed under a rule enacted by the state's highest court.

 

Stephens and another inmate, Lamarr C. Harris, are accused of the 2006 fatal stabbing of corrections officer David McGuinn in the now-closed Maryland House of Correction.

 

Five years after the killing, the co-defendants have not been tried, in part because of changes to the state's death penalty law.

 

One expert said the hearing could allow judges to weed out some death penalty prosecutions.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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