Thursday, December 6, 2012

A federal appeals court has ordered a resentencing for an Arkansas doctor convicted in a bombing that nearly killed the head of the state medical board.

A jury convicted Randeep Mann of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the attack on Dr. Trent Pierce. His attorneys appealed his life sentence, arguing there wasn't enough evidence to convict.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Mann's conviction but said Thursday that Mann shouldn't have received a sentencing enhancement based on allegations that he ordered the assault of an inmate. The panel said the allegation was never brought up in court and was improperly referenced in a pre-sentencing report.

The court also ordered that one of Mann's two weapons convictions be tossed, finding they amounted to double jeopardy.