NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Oral arguments are set for June 9 in an appeal by Tennessee officials after an inmate was spared execution due to his claim that racism tainted the jury selection at his trial.
State officials will argue in front of the Court of Criminal Appeals that the death sentence should be reinstated for Abu-Ali Abdur-Rahman.
Last August, a Nashville judge approved an agreement between Abu-Ali Abdur-Rahman and Nashville's district attorney to resentence Abdur'Rahman to life in prison.
Abdur'Rahman's resentencing agreement came after Abdur'Rahman presented evidence that prosecutors at his original trial showed a preference for white jurors. In his appeal, Attorney General Herbert Slatery argued that the agreement "circumvented established legal procedures".
Abdur'Rahman had been scheduled to be executed in April.
Abdur'Rahman was sentenced to die for the 1986 murder of Patrick Daniels. Police said Daniels and Norma Jean Norman were bound with duct tape and stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife at Norman's home.