Nearly one month after a federal jury in Chattanooga convicted a 24-year-old Atlanta resident of first-degree murder, court proceedings resumed Monday to decide if he lives or dies.

Rejon Taylor could be sentenced by the end of the week, but not until the defense finishes questioning at least 18 witnesses who are scheduled to share their personal feelings about the young man.

Several testified over and over Monday about how “quiet, smart and caring” Mr. Taylor was as a child and young adult, all in an effort to prove he does not deserve to die for his role in the 2003 shooting death of an Atlanta business owner in Collegedale.

Only one witness — one of Mr. Taylor’s former elementary school teachers — expressed disbelief at the reality of the situation.

“It is a shock to be here right now,” Donald Purnell told jurors Monday. “I was looking for Mr. Taylor to do greater things.”

Mr. Taylor’s trial, which began Aug. 25 and lasted three weeks, was the first-ever death penalty trial to be held in Eastern Tennessee’s federal courts district. Normally the domain of state judicial systems, seeking the death penalty in the federal system is extremely rare.

“It’s reserved only for the worst of the worst,” Mr. Taylor’s defense attorney Bill Ortwein told jurors Monday before witnesses began regaling them with stories of the defendant’s “nice” and “respectful” nature.

Mr. Taylor’s aunt, Felecia Gatlin, described through tears how, at 12 years old, he had stood in the doorway and cried when she was going through kidney failure.

“He was just a gentle, sweet kid,” Ms. Gatlin said.

The trial was riddled with questions on whether the heavy media coverage had affected jurors, suggestions that the verdict had been “racist” and the opinion expressed by Mr. Taylor in a recorded telephone conversation that those who convicted him were “little redneck-looking folks.”

Little attention had been paid to victim Guy Luck until Monday, when the young woman who grew up working in his Atlanta restaurant described him as “fun to work with, so French, and so smart.”

“He was like a stepfather to me,” said Robin Belcher, 26, whose mother, Stephanie Belcher, was romantically involved with Mr. Luck for about 10 years and co-owned the French restaurant Violette with him.

Mr. Luck was a French national who was kidnapped from the driveway of his Atlanta home in 2003, driven to Collegedale and shot in the mouth by Mr. Taylor on the side of a secluded road in broad daylight. Mr. Luck had been the victim of identity theft and stalking, prosecutors said, a scheme carried out by Mr. Taylor and his friends for more than a year before his death.

Jurors convicted Mr. Taylor, who was 19 at the time of the crime, of first-degree murder, kidnapping and carjacking, although he continued to maintain his innocence.

The prosecution maintains that Mr. Taylor never has taken responsibility for his crime, despite the guilty pleas in 2006 from his friends Joey Marshall and Sir Jack Matthews, who participated in the crime and are expected to receive life terms in prison when they are sentenced in coming months.

Letters written by Mr. Taylor after his conviction in mid-September have provided insight into a young man who believes he eventually will be granted a new trial and then acquitted and permitted to walk free.

“I guess someone killed the president, and I’m being held responsible — you know what I mean,” Mr. Taylor wrote in one letter, a phrase prosecutors say mocks the victim and proves his utter lack of remorse.

But as the sentencing phase continues this week, defense attorney Mr. Ortwein, in an effort to convince jurors not to put his client to death, pointed out several times that “Rejon Taylor will never ever walk the streets of a city or town as a free individual again.”

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