A jury merely convicts. It a judge, a member of the judiciary, one of the three branches of the government that sentences. Even with a jury recommendation of the death sentence, it is still up to the judge who can override and sentence to life. After sentencing, it’s the executive branch that carries out the sentence.
Right - but it is the jury that convicts - supposedly wrongly convicted if we are to believe this story. So it is not the judge that screwed it is the jury - again if we are to believe he is innocent and we really don’t know all the facts.