Moeller Case Goes Before 8th Circuit

     ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - An attorney for a South Dakota man on
death row for the 1990 rape and murder of a 9-year-old Sioux Falls
girl told a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals that her client's conviction and sentence should be
reversed.
     Defense attorney Julie Pitt says Thursday the rights of
58-year-old Donald Moeller were violated during his 1997 trial
because jurors should have been told that life in prison meant no
chance for parole.
     Sherri Sunden Wald argued for the state, saying the judge in the
case was not required to give more instructions than he did. She
says the conviction and sentence should stand.
     Moeller was first convicted in 1992 of killing Becky O'Connell
and sentenced to death. During a second trial in 1997, he was again
convicted and sentenced to death.