A death sentence handed down in Mobile County is headed back to court for reconsideration after an Alabama appeals panel found that one of four capital murder convictions against the defendant amounted to an improper double conviction for the same offense.
The case centers on Aubrey Lynn Shaw, convicted several years ago of killing an elderly couple in their farmhouse with a knife during an attack investigators say was fueled by drug use. Trial testimony described the victims, a husband and wife in their late seventies and early eighties, as having been stabbed roughly fifty times combined. Shaw was ultimately sentenced to death for the killings.
In a recent ruling, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals found that among the four capital murder counts on which a jury convicted Shaw, one improperly duplicated a burglary-related murder charge already reflected in another count. Appellate judges determined that counting the same underlying offense twice violated protections against being convicted more than once for a single crime.
Writing for the majority, the appeals court upheld two convictions tied to burglary-related murder along with a separate conviction for the murder of two or more people in a single course of conduct, but vacated the redundant fourth count. As a result, the panel ordered the Mobile County Circuit Court judge who originally handled the case to reexamine the death sentence, since the now-invalidated conviction may have factored into the original sentencing decision as an aggravating circumstance.
A prosecutor involved in the case said her office remains hopeful the death sentence will ultimately be reaffirmed once the judge revisits the sentencing order, noting that the physical evidence in the case, including a bloody knife and shoe and sock prints linking Shaw to the scene, was extensive. She said the appeals court had rejected nearly every other argument raised by Shaw’s defense team, which included challenges to jury selection, jury instructions and the handling of trial evidence, out of nearly twenty issues raised on appeal.
The prosecutor added that the ruling, while narrow, reopens painful memories for the victims’ family, noting that the couple’s daughter continues to grieve years after the killings. No new sentencing date before the circuit judge has yet been scheduled. The appellate court’s decision was not unanimous, with two judges concurring in part and dissenting in part from the majority opinion.