GREENSBURG — A man sentenced to death for his role in the torture death of a mentally disabled woman deserves a new penalty trial, the state’s highest court ruled.

Melvin Knight, 27, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in a dingy Greensburg apartment in February 2010. A Westmoreland County jury in August 2013 decided to sentence him to death instead of life in prison, the only possible punishments for first-degree murder.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Knight deserved a new penalty trial because jurors weren’t told that Knight had no criminal record and they should have been allowed to consider that as a mitigating factor.

The new trial has yet to be scheduled.

In Pennsylvania, juries must weigh aggravating factors — including torture — against mitigating factors to determine whether the death penalty is warranted. Knight’s attorneys argued that his mental health issues were a mitigating factor, and the jury agreed but decided that wasn’t enough to outweigh other aspects of Daugherty’s killing.

Knight was one of six people charged in Daugherty’s death. He and Ricky Smyrnes, 30, were sentenced to death.