Judge declares mistrial in Buddhist temple killings
Oct 24, 2013, 10:46 AM | Updated: 10:55 am
PHOENIX — A mistrial has been declared in the Buddhist temple killings retrial of Johnathan Doody.
The jury failed to reach a verdict, forcing Judge Joseph Kreamer to declare mistrial.
Doody’s retrial began Aug. 12. Jurors deliberated for less than a week before one of them said it was too emotional for her to continue. Deliberations were halted, and she was replaced with an alternate juror.
The judge then instructed the panel to begin anew Oct. 3.
Doody, now 39, was just 17 when he was accused of participating in the August 1991 slayings at the Wat Promkunaram temple.
He was found guilty in 1993 and sentenced to 281 years in prison, but an appeals court threw out his conviction in 2011 after finding that investigators improperly obtained a confession from him.
Next court date is a status conference on Oct. 31.
