She said Aiken's sentencing date had not yet been set. Aiken, his brothers Roland and Daniel and 3 others were indicted on federal murder, carjacking, assault and racketeering conspiracy charges this past April. If convicted, Aiken could join a handful of prisoners facing death sentences stemming from federal convictions. Beginning about 1986, the Moscow Posse bought and sold drugs, guns and ammunition and used false documents to allow Jamaicans to travel between the Caribbean island nation and the United States, according to the Miami indictment. Group members also are charged with distributing cocaine and marijuana in various U.S. cities.
Prosecutors say they sold some of the drugs they stole from other drug dealers.
Various members of the so-called Moscow Posse are accused of murders in New York and Miami in October 1995. The defendants have been in federal custody since 1997. The state Supreme Court said on Thursday that after 17 years there is no longer a need to have a 2nd set of appeals just to decide if death verdicts are fair. The review has been treated as a separate appeal since New Jersey's death penalty law was enacted in 1982. The justices said consolidating the two appellate steps into one might save time and reduce the years between conviction and execution.