Court Voids 2nd Death Sentence

For the second time in a week, the state Supreme Court today reversed a death sentence, ruling in the case of a Long Beach man doomed for a prostitution-linked murder outside a bathhouse that there was no evidence to support a finding of robbery that was the basis of the capital charge.

The unanimous decision left intact the murder conviction of Oscar Lee Morris, 43, despite the court’s conclusion that an arrangement of leniency for the prosecution’s key witness was improperly concealed from the jury. Morris faces resentencing to a term of up to life in prison for the September, 1978, murder.