PORTLAND — The family of a victim whose killer’s death sentence was overturned worries the man may one day go free.

The son of Marine Corps flying ace Maj. Gen. Marion Carl is worried his father’s killer may one day get out of prison, the Oregonian newspaper reported.

“I could care less if he gets death,” Bruce Carl said. “No one in our family ever said we wanted his life. Everyone will be served if he spends the rest of his life in prison. What none of us want is to see him walk out of prison in 20 years.”

The death sentence for 32-year-old Jesse Fanus came after a judge ruled Fanus’ attorney failed to portray the abuse Fanus suffered as a youth, which might have swayed jurors deciding his punishment.

Fanus was convicted of gunning down Carl on June 28, 1998, in the 82-year-old pilot’s Southern Oregon home. The young man stole cash and a car in the break-in.

Fanus was the youngest person on Oregon’s Death Row when he was sentenced to death in 1999 at age 19. Gov. John Kitzhaber has ordered a halt to all executions as long as he is in office.

James Barnett, a friend of Marion Carl’s, said the ruling is a “travesty of justice.”

“I know people who have had super bad childhoods who became great citizens,” he said. “(Fanus) had an opportunity to go straight, or do what he wanted and let the chips fall where they may.”

Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg said his office will vigorously pursue a death sentence if a new sentencing hearing is required.

Mark Hendershott, Fanus’ attorney at trial and sentencing, said he believes he adequately represented his client.

Bruce Carl said he can still see the replastering job where workers patched over the shotgun blast that took out part of the wall in his father’s Roseburg home.

Even though the carpets were cleaned, a few drops of his father’s blood remain in a small section that the cleaners missed.

“It’s out of the way,” he said. “No one would notice it. But I do. I leave it there to remember.

“It’s like going to the scene of a battle,” he said. “I don’t want to forget.”