Supreme Court rules against death row inmate

Monday, Dec. 6, 1999 | 10:52 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- A 69-year-old killer on death row for his second murder has lost his latest appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

The court refused Friday to reconsider its prior denial of the appeal of Melvin J. Geary, who was convicted of the stabbing death of Edward Colvin, who took him in after Geary had lost his job in Reno.

Geary had been convicted in 1974 in Las Vegas of the killing of 48-year-old Annette Morris and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1980 the state Pardons Board commuted the life sentence to allow for parole, and he was freed in 1993.

He was arrested the same year in the Colvin killing, convicted and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court voided that penalty and ordered another hearing. At a second hearing, Geary also received the death penalty. An appeal was launched, and he lost that and now his petition for a rehearing has been denied.

Geary in his petition claimed his sentence was excessive considering the nature of the crime. And he cited another case in which the death penalty was overturned by the Supreme Court due in part to alcohol problems of the assailant.

The court said the Geary case was different since he was a repeat killer and the other case involved a person who was a first-time murderer.