St. Louis, Missouri, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said she will re-try the case, with an aim for a death penalty, against Reginald Clemons. The case involved the murder of sisters Julie and Robin Kerry in 1991.
"While this is a heartbreaking and emotionally charged case for this community, I believe we have the evidence needed to pursue charges and hold Mr. Clemons accountable for the crimes he committed against Julie and Robin Kerry and Thomas Cummins," Joyce said in a written statement, as cited by a Jan. 25 report from ABC News.
Julie and Robin were 20 and 19, respectively, at the time of the murders. They were at the abandoned Chain of Rocks Bridge with their cousin, Thomas Cummins, when Clemons, who was 19 at the time, his cousin Antonio Richardson, and friends Marlin Gray and Daniel Winfrey allegedly raped and murdered the two sisters. The group also forced Cummins to jump off the bridge, to which he survived, ABC News noted, citing the Associated Press.
Winfrey was sentenced to 30 years of jail time and is currently serving his parole. Gray received the death penalty in 2005, while Richardson's death sentence was changed to life imprisonment without parole.
Clemons, meanwhile, was convicted of first-degree murder and was given a death sentence. However, the Missouri Supreme Court dismissed the verdict last November, and sent the case back to the circuit court to decide on the re-trial of the case, St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reported.
Clemons is currently serving a 15-year jail term at the Potosi Correctional Center. He was convicted for assaulting an employee of the Missouri Department of Corrections in 2007, St. Louis American reported.
The state Supreme Court's retired judge, Michael Manners, who was assigned "special master" on the Kerry murder case, stated in a court report that procedural errors were factors considered in the case. However, he still ruled that Clemons did not provide enough evidence of his innocence in the murders.
