Wichita ? A Sedgwick County judge overturned the death sentence of convicted killer Stanley Elms on Friday and resentenced him to life in prison.

Elms, now 28, had been sentenced to death for the 1998 rape and murder of 29-year-old Regina Gray, who was his neighbor at a Wichita duplex.

But in 2001, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down several death sentences, including that of Elms, because juries had been given unconstitutional descriptions of how the capital punishment law was to be applied.

Under a deal negotiated by both sides earlier this month, prosecutors agreed to drop the death sentence if Elms agreed not to pursue an appeal accusing prosecutors of misconduct during his trial. The defense contended in an appeal that prosecutors made misleading statements in the opening address to the jury, misrepresented evidence during the trial and made improper closing remarks.

But the new deal stalled when the defense objected to a stipulation added Wednesday by the prosecution that Elms had to give a detailed confession to the court before he could receive the new sentence.

The objection was dropped and Elms on Friday admitted to killing Gray.

The prosecution said it was important to ensure that the case never returned to court.

“It was also important to the family to hear the man who killed their daughter, their sister, finally admit that he had done it … that it wasn’t any phantom,” said Assistant Dist. Atty. Kevin O’Connor.

Ben Gray, Regina Gray’s father, said the family knew from the beginning that there would be appeals.

“But,” he said, “we never expected the Kansas Supreme Court to breach its contract to the public by taking it upon themselves to change their own rules.”

In the ruling three years ago, the Supreme Court said a jury could recommend a death sentence only if aggravating circumstances put forth in favor of death outweigh other factors against death. For example, the brutality of a killing could be put forth as an argument in favor of death, while the defendant’s age could be used to argue against it.

In Elms’ case in 1999, Sedgwick County District Judge Gregory Waller told jurors they could recommend death if they felt the aggravating and mitigating circumstances deserved equal weight.

“We either had to accept a lesser sentence or run the risk of setting the murderer free,” Gray said. “If bureaucracy could possibly get him off death row, then there was no guarantee that a new trial wouldn’t set him free.”