A closely divided US Supreme Court today upheld a Kansas law that requires a death sentence when the evidence for and against such a punishment appears to be equal.
The justices, by a 5-4 vote, overturned a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that declared the state's death-penalty law unconstitutional for violating protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
The 1994 law says if the evidence for and against imposing a sentence of death is equal, Kansas juries must choose death instead of life in prison.
The decision is not expected to have a broad impact on how the death penalty is carried out throughout the nation.
Justice Samuel Alito, the court's newest member who was appointed by President Bush, apparently cast the tie-breaking vote to uphold the law.
The case first was argued when Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was on the court, but with her retirement and the justices apparently deadlocked by a 4-4 vote, the case had to be argued a second time after the more conservative Mr Alito replaced her.
The case involved Michael Marsh, who was convicted of murder for the 1996 fatal shooting of a 21-year-old woman and for then setting her house on fire, killing her 19-month-old daughter.
The jury sentenced him to death after finding the aggravating circumstances warranting the penalty were not outweighed by the mitigating factors.