High court rejects request to reinstate man's death sentence

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request by Indiana's attorney general's office to reinstate the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a central Indiana woman and her 4-year-old daughter.

Monday's decision leaves in place a federal appeals court ruling that threw out Frederick Baer's death sentence because he had ineffective legal counsel. He'll now be resentenced by an Indiana court.

The 47-year-old Indianapolis man was convicted in the 2004 slayings of 26-year-old Cory Clark and her daughter Jenna at their rural Madison County home about 25 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago threw out Baer's death sentence in January.

Indiana's attorney general's office asked the full federal appeals court in February to reinstate Baer's death sentence.