Death row inmate to get new trial
Former spouse's testimony is cited

By Mark R. Chellgren
Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Death row inmate Michael St. Clair,
convicted of a 1991 murder in Hardin County, should
get a new trial in a murder case because his ex-wife
was improperly allowed to testify, the Kentucky
Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

St. Clair also is scheduled to get a new sentencing
hearing on a murder conviction from Bullitt County
because of a high court ruling in an earlier case. St.
Clair is under two sentences of life without parole
for murders committed in Oklahoma.

In the case yesterday, a divided court ruled that
testimony from St. Clair's ex-wife on conversations
about the murders they had while married should not
have been allowed at trial.

The majority ruling drew four justices, even though
they were divided about how much of Bylynn St. Clair's
testimony should have been excluded.

Three justices said the wife's testimony about the
conversations was proper because it may have been
overheard by another person.

Prosecutors also argued, and a minority of the
justices agreed, that the communications took place
during St. Clair's escape from Oklahoma, and the
majority opinion interpreted the marital privilege too
broadly.

St. Clair, 48, was sentenced to death for kidnapping
and killing Frank Brady. He stole Brady's truck while
fleeing after a jail escape in Oklahoma. The Bullitt
County conviction also involved a murder committed
while St. Clair was on the run.

Kentucky, as do most states, has a provision that
spouses cannot be forced to testify against their
husbands or wives. One spouse also can object to
testimony from the other.

Chief Justice Joseph Lambert noted that the privilege
is "designed to protect and enhance the marital
relationship at the expense of otherwise useful
evidence."

Justice Donald Wintersheimer said the testimony was
too critical to be excluded and may have involved
conversations that others heard, which overrides the
privilege.
Woodall appeal dismissed

In a separate ruling, the court unanimously dismissed
an appeal by another death row inmate, Robert Keith
Woodall.

Woodall, 31, was convicted of kidnapping, raping and
murdering Sarah Hansen after abducting her from a
convenience store in Greenville in 1997.

Hansen's body was found in Luzerne Lake, and Woodall
was sentenced to die in 1998.

Two other appeals have been rejected by the Kentucky
Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined
to hear his case.

In the latest appeal, Woodall said a juror at his
penalty trial improperly took biblical passages into
the jury room and may have shared them with other
jurors.

The court, in an unsigned opinion, said Woodall should
have raised the matters during earlier proceedings. It
also rejected claims that Woodall has been forced to
act hastily in his appeals because of death warrants
signed to carry out his execution.

The Kentucky Corrections Department lists 36 people
under death sentences in Kentucky. The last execution
occurred in 1999.
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