Killer of 3 Policemen Given Death Sentence
A judge rejected a jury’s call for mercy and sentenced an admitted drug dealer to death Friday in Birmingham for the murders of three police officers gunned down as they entered a crack house.
Circuit Judge Tommy Nail said the horrors of the crime outweighed the jury’s recommendation of life imprisonment without parole for Kerry Spencer, 25.
“This was the only right thing to do for justice to be done,” said Bobbie Owen, widow of Officer Carlos Owen, 58. He and fellow Officers Harley Chisholm III, 40, and Charles Robert Bennett, 33, were shot to death June 17, 2004. A fourth officer suffered a minor wound.
Spencer gets an automatic appeal under state law.
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