FRANKFORT, KY — The capital punishment sentence for a man convicted of a gruesome 1987 double murder at a Madison County, KY general store has been upheld by a federal appeals court, according to an announcement from Attorney General Russell Coleman.
In a 2-1 decision issued last Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected the latest appeal from death row inmate David Sanders. The Attorney General’s Office of the Solicitor General successfully defended the original conviction, ensuring Sanders remains on death row, where he has been housed for nearly four decades.
According to case records, the crimes occurred in 1987 at the Boone Variety Store in Madison County, KY. Sanders admitted to entering the business, buying a drink and candy, using the payphone, and then leaving. He returned moments later armed with a handgun from his vehicle. Sanders approached the counter and fatally shot the owner, Jim Brandenburg, in the back of the head. When a customer, Wayne Hatch, walked into the store, Sanders shot him as well before robbing both men and fleeing the scene…