The Arizona Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for a convicted killer.
It is the third death sentence Darrel Pandeli has faced for the same case.
The first time Pandeli faced the death sentence for killing and mutilating 43-year-old Holly Iler, it was 1997 — four years after her murder.
In 2002, that case was overturned after a U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a different death penalty case that impacted several death sentences nationwide for procedural violations.
A lower court then returned his second death penalty case in 2006 after adding aggravated circumstances to his case, including the 1991 murder of another woman and the "especially heinous and depraved" manner in which he killed Holly Iler.
But that death sentence was also thrown out by a Maricopa County Superior Court ruling on the grounds Pandeli’s lawyers mishandled his case.
As of Monday, the state Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence claiming the lower court was incorrect on its procedural ruling.
