By Chris Casteel, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Rocky E. Dodd, who was sentenced to death for killing two Edmond residents in 1994, will have to be resentenced in Oklahoma County after the U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review the case.
Without comment, the court let stand a decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in October that Dodd’s constitutional rights were violated when members of the victims’ families testified during the sentencing phase of the trial that Dodd should receive the death sentence.
The state attorney general’s office unsuccessfully sought the high court’s review of that decision.
Diane Clay, spokeswoman for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, said, “We will continue to press in federal court the inherent unfairness of defense witnesses being allowed to present testimony on recommended punishment while any mention of punishment recommendations by victims’ families, which is consistent with Oklahoma law, is deemed in error.”
Separately on Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Dodd, 46, regarding his murder convictions.
Dodd was convicted of killing his neighbors, Keri Jean Sloniker, 19, and her boyfriend, Shane McInturff, 20, by slitting their throats in their apartment after McInturff accused Dodd of stealing McInturff’s stash of drugs.
The high court’s decision not to hear Dodd’s appeal means those convictions will stand.
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