Court OKs new sentencing trial for 2001 double homicide

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court granted a new sentencing trial for a man convicted and sentenced to die for the slaying of a Poplar Bluff, Mo., couple.

Terrance L. Anderson, 30, of Poplar Bluff, was convicted by a Cape Girardeau jury in early 2001 of two counts of first-degree murder in the July 15, 1997, shooting deaths of Debbie and Stephen Rainwater.

Anderson was sentenced to capital punishment for the killing of Debbie Rainwater and life without parole for Stephen Rainwater's death.

The defendant was appealing the court's decision to deny him post-conviction relief for his conviction and sentencing. In an opinion issued June 30, the court stated it wrongly denied Anderson's post-conviction relief relating to the death sentence.

The court reversed the death sentence for Anderson based on his ineffective counsel.

The defendant's attorney failed to object to a juror serving on the trial when the juror said he would have to be convinced by the defense to impose life without parole and not a sentence of death. Such a burden falls on the state, and not the defense.

Anderson would again be eligible for capital punishment during a new sentencing.

The Rainwaters were the grandparents of Anderson's then-infant daughter. Anderson killed them after learning the mother of their child obtained a restraining order against him.