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Update on Daryl Atkins

By standdown

Today's New York Times carries the AP report, "Virginia: Inmate Will Remain on Death Row."A man in the center of a case that led to the United States Supreme Court?s banning executions of the mentally retarded will remain on death row for now. A judge granted a request by prosecutors to stay his order to commute the sentence of the man, Daryl R. Atkins, to life in prison while they appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court. The judge, Prentis Smiley Jr. of York County Circuit Court, commuted the sentence last month after finding that prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence to defense lawyers during Mr. Atkins?s 1998 murder trial. Prosecutors contend that Judge Smiley lacked the authority to commute the sentence. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 2002 in Mr...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 08, 2008 (boomark / email).