HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Douglas Belt died in prison this past spring. Still the man who was on death row for the murder of Lucille Gallegos had an appeal before the supreme court trying to get part of a rape conviction overturned.

And the court did just that vacating the sentence this week. While it does nothing for Belt or anyone else now, it does stay with in the sentencing guidelines and so the appeal continued even though Belt has been deceased since April.

Belt was sentenced to die for the 2002 death of Gallegos who was found decapitated at a west Wichita apartment that someone had tried to set on fire.  Prosecutors believed Belt had attempted to rape Gallegos before killing her.When Belt’s DNA was put into the national database, it linked him to six unsolved rapes going back to the 1980’s.  

However, attempts to prosecute Bell with those crimes were eventually tossed over constitutional and technical errors. Belts latest appeal cited multiplicity in the attempted rape charge which was granted by the supreme court.