1.   But, again, he failed to sway the jury, which returned a first-degree murder verdict.

2.   An alternate juror, released from duty before deliberations began, said he would have voted for a capital murder verdict.

3.   A murder verdict in his second trial was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court because lawyers talked in court about how Dexter was silent when arrested.

4.   But jurors apparently rejected that defense when they returned murder verdicts.

5.   Despite this numerical imbalance, the jury had no trouble in reaching a first-degree murder verdict and imposing a death sentence.

6.   Deputy District Attorney Martin L. Herscovitz had sought a first-degree murder verdict, which would have required proof of premeditation.

7.   Even after the jury returned the second-degree murder verdict, Burke noted, Zobel found that there was a solid basis for the conviction.

8.   For many jurors, the disclosure put any qualms they had about their first-degree murder verdicts to rest.

9.   McCaskill won a first-degree murder verdict, but Brown forced a plea deal in which Blackwell escaped the death penalty.