Judge won’t overturn death sentence in SC murder

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A man on federal death row for killing women in South Carolina and West Virginia has been denied a request to vacate his death sentence.

U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. this week turned down the motion from Brandon Basham.

In 2011, Basham said he wanted his sentence and conviction vacated because of mistakes made at his 2004 trial.

He and Chadrick Fulks were convicted of killing Marshall University student Samantha Burns and Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002. Donovan’s remains were found last year. Burns’ body has never been found.

The U.S. Supreme Court has also previously turned down a request to overturn Basham’s death sentence because of a juror’s misconduct.