The Nevada Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the death penalty imposed against Daryl Linnie Mack for the 1988 killing of a Reno woman.

Mack, 45, was serving a life prison for another murder when he was charged in 2001 of killing Betty Jane May at her southwest Reno home.

May, 55, was raped and strangled. More than a decade after the killing, Mack was linked to the crime through DNA evidence collected at the scene.

It was the first time in Washoe County that a murder was solved and prosecuted solely on the basis of DNA evidence.

Mack already was serving a life sentence for the 1994 strangulation of Kim Parks in a Reno motel.

Mack waived his right to a jury trial and was found guilty of first-degree murder in April last year by District Judge James Hardesty.

A three-judge panel then imposed the death penalty.

The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the sentence, noting Mack had waived his right to a jury trial, Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick said.

Last year the U.S Supreme Court, acting on an Arizona case, ruled that only juries - not a judge - can sentence someone to death.

But Gammick said ruling from the nation's high court did not address the legality of death sentences imposed by a three-judge panel.

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States With No Death Penalty

• Alaska
  
• District of Columbia
  
• Hawaii
  
• Iowa
  
• Maine
  
• Massachusetts
  
• Michigan
  
• Minnesota
  
• North Dakota
  
• Pennsylvania
  
• Vermont
  
• West Virginia
  
• Wisconsin

Stats on Executions

• 802 - Total number of executions since the 1976 reinstatement of capital punishment.

• 9 - Number of female defendants that have been executed since 1976.

• 454 - Number of white defendants executed.

• 278 - Number of black defendants executed.

• 52 - Number of Latino defendants executed.

• 13 - Number of Native American defendants executed.

• 5 - Number of Asian defendants executed.

• 53 - Number of executions in 2002.

Most states use lethal injection as the mode of execution, but there are some variations:

• Alabama: Lethal injection or choice of electrocution.

• Arizona: Lethal injection of choice of gas chamber for those sentenced before 11/92

• Arkansas: Lethal injection of choice of electrocution for those sentenced before 3/4/83

• California: Lethal injection

• Colorado: Lethal injection

• Connecticut: Lethal injection

• Delaware: Lethal injection or choice of hanging for those sentenced before 6/13/86

• Florida: Lethal injection of choice of electrocution for those sentenced before 1/14/00

• Georgia: Lethal injection

• Idaho: Lethal injection or firing squad

• Illinois: Lethal injection

• Indiana: Lethal injection

• Kansas: Lethal injection

• Kentucky: Lethal injection or choice of electrocution for those sentenced before 6/1/98

• Louisiana: Lethal injection

• Maryland: Lethal injection of choice of gas chamber for those sentenced before 3/11/94

• Mississippi: Lethal injection

• Missouri: Lethal injection

• Montana: Lethal injection

• Nebraska: Electrocution

• Nevada: Lethal injection

• New Jersey: Lethal injection

• New Mexico: Lethal injection

• New York: Lethal Injection

• North Carolina: Lethal injection

• Ohio: Lethal injection

• Oklahoma: Lethal injection

• Oregon: Lethal injection

• Pennsylvania: Lethal injection

• South Carolina: Lethal injection

• South Dakota: Lethal injection

• Tennessee: Lethal injection of choice of electrocution for those sentenced before 1/1/99

• Texas: Lethal injection

• Utah: Firing squad or lethal injection

• Virginia: Electrocution or lethal injection

• Washington: Hanging or choice of lethal injection

• Wyoming: Lethal injection

• U.S. Government: Lethal injection

• U.S. Military: Lethal injection

Source: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org (The Death Penalty Information Center Web site) contributed to this report.