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Supreme Court Orders Review In Murder Case

Last updated on Wednesday, September 4, 2013

(INDIANAPOLIS) - The Indiana Supreme Court has ordered a new review in the case of Michael Dean Overstreet, who was sentenced to death for raping and killing a college student.

Overstreet was convicted in 2000 in the 1997 killing of Kelly Eckart, a Franklin College freshman.

Overstreet claims he is not mentally competent to be executed.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the death sentence by a 2-1 vote in 2012.

The Supreme Court ordered a Johnson County court to schedule hearings in the appeal, and the case is to be decided on or before March 3, 2014.

Eckart was found in a ravine in Brown County. She had been strangled and shot in the head.

The case led to the passage of a state law that allows murder victims' relatives to read statements in court after a judge has announced the sentence.

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