Prosecutors want Aussie's killer evaluated

An Oklahoma prosecutor has asked for the young man who shot dead Australian baseball player Chris Lane to undergo a psychological evaluation to determine if he is "irreparably corrupt".

Chancey Luna, who was 16 when he fired a .22-calibre revolver at Mr Lane's back in a drive-by shooting in 2013, was in 2015 sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, however, this year ordered Luna be re-sentenced, giving the young killer a chance of eventually being released.

The new sentencing is tentatively set for January in Duncan, where the shooting took place.

"This court should order a psychological evaluation of the defendant in order to determine whether the crime reflects the defendant's transient immaturity or an irreparable corruption and permanent incorrigibility," Assistant District Attorney Cortnie Siess wrote in a filing to the Stephens County District Court.

Luna was prosecuted as an adult at his trial and a jury took just one hour to find him guilty of first-degree murder.

A judge sentenced him to the maximum - life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals held that for Luna to be sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt Luna, as a juvenile, was irreparably corrupt and permanently incorrigible.

"Luna's jury was precluded from hearing any mitigating evidence or argument about his youth and youth related characteristics," Judge Arlene Johnson, one of five judges on the appeals court, wrote.

The appeals court confirmed the jury's first-degree murder guilty verdict.

Luna was sitting in the back seat of a car driven by a friend when he randomly shot Lane as he saw the Australian jogging along a residential street.

Lane, 22, grew up playing for the Essendon Baseball Club and had a scholarship to study and play at Oklahoma's East Central University.