Then they took on the Fayette commonwealth's attorney's policy unique in Kentucky of taking all murder cases to trial rather than allowing plea bargains, a policy that denies accused killers due process that other criminals are permitted.
Criminals often receive lighter sentences in exchange for guilty pleas.
Sherroan's attorneys lost that argument, too. Mark Stanziano, one of Sherroan's two attorneys, challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty and wanted it not to be an option for the jury, whose members should be picked Wednesday and Thursday. The trial is scheduled to continue through May 2. Stanziano cited two studies, one by Gennaro Vito of the University of Louisville and the other by Columbia University, which showed death-penalty cases are so riddled with errors that 82 percent are overturned in Kentucky and 68 percent are thrown out nationally. But Mike Malone, chief assistant commonwealth's attorney, yesterday said the credibility of both studies was in question.