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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- The Navajo man convicted last year of slitting the throats of his two toddlers in September of 2000 won't get a new trial.
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the fainting of a juror during testimony about one of the child's severe injuries does not entitle Anderson Black to a new trial.
Last month, a federal public defender argued the incident left the woman and possibly the entire jury biased. But the three-judge panel disagreed, saying her fainting indicated she was disturbed by the gruesome nature of the photograph, and it was not bias.
Black was convicted in the murders of three-year-old Dokota Ironhawk Black and his one-year-old sister Nicole Gentlehawk Black. He is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
