Court Overturns Murder Conviction

SEATTLE - A state appeals court has overturned the first-degree-murder conviction of a Seattle man accused of killing an 88-year-old woman.

The appellate panel ruled that the judge in the trial of Kris Howe had failed to tell jurors to avoid news reports on the case.

Howe was convicted of fatally stabbing Miriam Turner in February 1994. The elderly victim had hired him to do yard work.

Howe was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole under the state's "three strikes" law.

The appeals court noted that the day after the trial started, an article in a Seattle newspaper said Howe was a sex offender undergoing deviancy counseling, and that he had previous convictions for rape and attempted rape. This information had been excluded from trial.

The appeals court said the trial judge erred by not asking jurors whether they had read or heard about the article.