The Death Penalty in W.Va. - UPDATED

I have been covering the federal trial of George "Porgy" Lecco and Valerie Suzette Friend, stemming from the 2005 death of a drug informant. The U.S. District Court jury found them guilty on all charges against each in a 13-count indictment. The jurors have been deliberating since Wednesday on whether to sentence each to death or to life in prison without parole.

Update -The jury voted for death for both Lecco and Friend _ the first death sentences handed down in West Virginia in more than 40 years. The Associated Press has the story, while The Charleston Gazette and MetroNews were among those also in the courtroom for the penalty verdicts.

Before the jury resumed deliberations today after the holiday weekend, I wrote this piece for The Associated Press on what affect this federal death penalty case might have on state law.

This is the fourth death penalty case in West Virginia since capital punishment was restored on the federal level in 1988. It was abolished for state crimes in 1965; the last execution for state crimes was in 1959.

The previous federal death penalty cases in the state all ended short of the penalty phase now underway in the Lecco-Friend case. But five other states without capital punishment have seen federal prosecutors secure the death penalty within their borders since 1988.

Yet, the death penalty remains off the books in those states. One state has revived the death penalty since 1988: New York, in 1995. But a federal death sentence was not handed down in that state in modern times until February.