The New Jersey Supreme Court overturned a death sentence today, ruling that the decision to seek death belongs to grand juries, not prosecutors:

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it is up to grand juries - and not county prosecutors - to decide whether the death penalty will be sought in a murder case.

The decision could affect the death sentences of 13 other N.J. death row inmates.

Since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1982, grand juries have determined whether enough evidence exists to charge a suspect with murder.

But the decision of whether to add a capital murder charge was left to prosecutors, and depended on whether there were aggravating circumstances, such as murder for hire, killing a police officer and multiple homicides.

New Jersey's high court ordered the change in procedure because recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings said that the aggravating factors are integral to the murder charge itself, not simply additional factors that determine a potential sentence.

Update: While the article says that public defenders are studying the decision to see if it might apply to others on death row, a lawyer writes in to say it most likely won't affect others:

The Supreme Court explicitly rejected that possibility in its decision. Here's the quote from page *55 of the opinion: "Our holding today applies only to those cases that have yet to reach the penalty-phase." So, defendants in upcoming trials can only be subjected to a capital trial upon an indictment complying with Fortin. Anyone who has already had a trial, even if they are still on direct appeal, are likely out of luck.