Killer returned to prison after release eyes sentence change

(AP) – Defense attorneys are seeking a sentence modification for a killer who was ordered back to prison after Delaware's Supreme Court reversed a judge's ruling that had freed her.

A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday on the request by 57-year-old Catherine Culp.

Culp was sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 shooting death of her boyfriend. Following a retrial, she was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Culp was released from prison in 2016 after a Superior Court judge concluded that her model conduct and extensive rehabilitation efforts behind bars demonstrated "extraordinary circumstances" justifying a sentence modification.

But the Supreme Court agreed with prosecutors that the judge was barred from considering Culp's second motion for sentence reduction, 12 years after a similar motion was denied.