New Orleans prosecutors go for a rare death penalty in a kidnapping and murder case from 2009.  It won't be easy for the district attorney's office, either, as the defense will likely argue that the victims weren't entirely innocent.

It was April, 2009 when Fitzgerald Phillips and Calyisse Perkins were kidnapped, then murdered.  A jury at New Orleans Criminal District Court convicted Kenneth J. Barnes of killing them and dumping their bodies in an abandoned home in Gert Town, near Carrollton and Earhart.

Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino says convincing jurors to condemn a criminal to die is usually reserved for particularly gut-wrenching cases.

"The most egregious cases, at least historically across the country, where the death penalty is often imposed, is in the case where you have completely innocent victims, particularly child victims," Ciolino told WWL First News.

Legal analyst Dane Ciolino:


Prosecutors said Barnes and Phillips had been involved in a marijuana deal together, and Ciolino says that may make a death sentence hard to get in this case.

"Here, the defense will argue or at least suggest to this jury that the victims were to some extent complicit in the events that lead to their deaths, because they were involved in drug dealing," he explained.

All it takes is one juror to vote no and Barnes will be spared execution. But with an increasing homicide rate, Ciolino says that may sway the panel.

"As the crime rate in creases and murders seem never to stop, you would think that jurors would take those sorts of things into consideration in their deliberations," he said.

(photo from Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office)