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By Kent Scheidegger et al.

Daryl Atkins, the subject of the Supreme Court's June 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, has won a Virginia Circuit Court ruling commuting his death sentence to life in prison according to this Associated Press story . Atkins was sentenced to death in 1996 for the kidnap, robbery and murder of a young Air Force recruit. While the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute a mentally retarded person in Atkins' appeal, it did not decide if Atkins himself was retarded. A new jury empaneled after the Atkins ruling found he was not retarded, but that verdict was overturned on appeal and a new hearing ordered. In this latest holding, Virginia Judge Prentis Smiley Jr. based his decision to commute Atkins' death sentence on the claim that prosecutors had withheld potentially favorable evidence from the defense...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on January 21, 2008 (boomark / email).