AUBURN, Maine (AP) Jury selection began Monday in the retrial of a Massachusetts man whose murder conviction was overturned by the state supreme court in Maine.
Marcus Asante, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was sentenced to 35 years as the convicted triggerman in a drug-related killing in Sherman, Maine, before his conviction was overturned last year.
It was the first murder conviction to be set aside in more than a decade in Maine.
Asante was accused of shooting Douglas Morin Jr., of Oakland, nine times during a drug deal in October 2016.
Asante testified that he fired in self-defense when Morin pulled out a gun after the deal was called off.
The supreme court ruled that a judge erred in instructions to jurors, allowing the jury to reach “a verdict based on impermissible criteria.”
The original trial was held in Aroostook County, where the crime took place, but the retrial was moved to Androscoggin County.
