Though Iran's Supreme Court quashed the death sentence in February 2003, the case was promptly sent back for retrial by the very court that ordered the execution.

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Legal experts independent of the case weighed in after the death sentence was handed down.

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Although the jury in the earlier case declined to sentence the defendants to death, that determination does not bind a future jury.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Civilian courts are no place to try terrorists

In that event, the result of failing to fight the Islamists in this case may prove to be not just a death sentence for Rifqa Bary.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Death sentence? The FDLE Report

The case next moves to the penalty phase, when jurors will weigh whether to give Gosnell a death sentence.

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From there, the case will move to the penalty phase, where jurors would decide whether Arias should receive a death sentence.

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It has also been quietly mooted that Turkey's parliament might decide to keep the Ocalan case off its agenda, so that along with some 40 other Turks under sentence of death Mr Ocalan would simply linger on death row with no immediate prospect of his sentence being carried out.

ECONOMIST: Turkey