LONG BEACH—One of three men who had been on death row for the December 1998 rape and beating death of a mother of three attacked while walking to a store in Long Beach was re-sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke said the maximum possible sentence was “warranted” against Jamelle Edward Armstrong, noting that she felt that the 41-year-old defendant had already benefited from a directive issued by newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon under which prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty again. Gascon’s directive—issued shortly after he was sworn into office last December—advises that “a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case.” The county’s top prosecutor has said he has a “mandate from the public.” Amstrong was sentenced to death in 2004 after being tried separately from his older half-brother, Warren …