New Hearing For Alabama Death Row Inmate

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – A federal appeals court is ordering a new hearing for an Alabama man sentenced to die for a double murder in Birmingham.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that trial attorneys didn’t show jurors enough evidence about Renard Marcel Daniel’s horrible childhood.

Daniel’s conviction stands in the shootings of John Brodie and Loretta McCulloch in 2001. But judges say the 41-year-old Daniel should get a hearing about his sentence.

The court says defense lawyers didn’t show jurors sufficient evidence about a childhood the judges called “nightmarish.”

The opinion says Daniel was 3 when his mother killed his father with a shotgun, and he was later sexually abused by a stepfather. It says the stepfather also forced Daniel to engage in sex acts with siblings.