Father gets death in murder of infant

ORANGEBURG, S.C., June 18 (UPI) -- A second hearing Thursday upheld Robert Northcutt's death sentence for the murder of his 4-month-old daughter in 2001.

Lexington County, S.C., Circuit Court Judge James Williams took slightly more than an hour to confirm the sentence, first imposed in 2003 but overthrown by the state Supreme Court in 2007.

The re-sentencing hearing in Orangeburg, S.C., took three days, The (Columbia, S.C.) State reported. Williams said the 28-year-old Northcutt's killing of Breanna represented "conduct so shocking it is undeserving of mercy," the newspaper said.

In 2003, a jury sentenced Northcutt to death, but his attorney claimed Solicitor Donnie Myers was "overly zealous" in his closing argument and the Supreme Court agreed.

Northcutt was 20 when he confessed to killing the baby in a fit of rage. He said he slapped, punched, choked and shook the 12-pound child before breaking her back on a crib rail because she wouldn't stop crying.