DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to move on now to a single court ruling that offers a new lease on life for 111 prison inmates that have been sitting on death row. A federal appeals court has thrown out their death sentences, and thrown countless other cases into limbo. Our national correspondent Frank Buckley reports that appeals to the decision are already planned.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that if he's killed...</s>FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ruling means that prisoners on death row in Arizona, Idaho and Montana remain convicted of their crimes, but their sentences for those crimes have been overturned. The ruling affects more than 100 death row inmates. They had followed a decision last year by the U.S. Supreme Court that said juries, not judges, should sentence people to death. A question that remained open was whether the new rules could apply retroactively to inmates who were awaiting their executions. The 8 to 3 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said they did, and that the death sentences should be commuted to sentences of life in prison. The other option for prosecutors in the individual jurisdictions that convicted those inmates is to instead rule try the penalty phases of each death row inmates. (on camera): Before any of that happens, though, it's expected that the Supreme Court will take up the case. Already, Arizona's attorney general says he plans to appeal. Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.
Federal Appeals Court Throws Out 111 Death Sentences