Neulander Still Up for Death Penalty

A rabbi can still face the death penalty when he is retried for murder later this month, a state appeals panel ruled Thursday.

A three-judge panel ruled that a jury's inability to decide a year ago whether Rabbi Fred J. Neulander arranged for his wife's murder should not affect the prosecution's ability to seek the death penalty at his second trial.

Neulander's lawyers argued that when the first jury deadlocked in November on a murder verdict, it also deadlocked on a death sentence, which can only be meted out by an unanimous jury.

Lawyer Dennis Wixted contended that the prosecution's justification for seeking a death sentence -- that it was a case of murder-for-hire -- was the same issue jurors were asked to consider in the guilt phase.

The court said that reasoning was flawed.

"The jury must first reach agreement on the non-capital murder elements before considering the capital qualifier," the judges wrote in an unsigned opinion.

Wixted said he did not plan to appeal because Thursday's ruling cited a similar state Supreme Court opinion issued earlier this year and because the state Supreme Court had already refused to hear Neulander's case.

Neulander's new trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 21 in Freehold, where it was moved after the first trial, held in Camden, generated massive media attention. He is charged with hiring two hit men to kill his wife, Carol, on Nov. 1, 1994, so he could carry on an extramarital affair.

On Wednesday, the judge and lawyers in the case finished the monthlong process of selecting 60 eligible jurors. That group will be cut to 16 before testimony begins.

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Author: NBC10/AP