EXPLAINER: What’s happening in the Justin Love case?

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - Judge Bob Brotherton granted Justin Love’s defense team the chance to respond to prosecutors’ arguments against their appeal on Friday. His team now has until 5 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2022, to file their response.

Love was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty in June. His defense team then filed an appeal saying the jury had been misdirected on the structure of how to find Love guilty, that some witness testimony shouldn’t have been admitted, and asking the judge to reform the sentence of life in prison.

During Love’s first trial, a jury returned a sentence of 50 years in prison. The trial was thrown out on appeal. Love’s lawyers claim the longer sentence Love received during his second trial was a violation of his Fourteenth Amendment rights. Prosecutors argue this doesn’t apply due to Love’s misconduct during the time between the two trials, referencing a harassment charge from January of this year.

During the closing arguments of Love’s trial, Gillespie argued that Love had chances to change and never did, and that he was the one who ordered co-defendant Blayne Brooks to pull the trigger during the shooting of Domanic Thrasher in December of 2018. Gillespie then told the jury that Love did not value Thrasher’s life since the killing came because of $500 of weed.