WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A retrial is set for a man accused of raping and killing a University of Delaware student in 2005.
The trial for 41-year-old James E. Cooke begins Wednesday at the New Castle County Courthouse.
Cooke was sentenced to death in 2007 for raping and murdering 20-year-old Lindsey Bonistall of White Plains, N.Y. Cooke was accused of breaking into the sophomore's off-campus apartment in Newark and raping and strangling her before placing her body in a bathtub and setting the apartment on fire.
The Delaware Supreme Court ruled in 2009, however, that Cooke's right to a fair trial was violated because his lawyers, without Cooke's consent and despite his repeated claims of innocence, sought a verdict of guilty but mentally ill.
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