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Plea Agreement in LaRoyce Smith Case

By standdown

Jennifer Emily reports, " Ex-Dallas death row inmate gets life in prison in plea deal," in the Dallas Morning News. A man whose death sentence was overturned last year by the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to life in prison Thursday in exchange for Dallas County prosecutors not seeking to execute him. The plea bargain likely means LaRoyce Smith will die in prison. District Attorney Craig Watkins had said as recently as 11 months ago that he would seek the death penalty against Mr. Smith after the high court overturned his sentence for a second time. The Supreme Court overturned the sentence ? but not the conviction ? because it ruled that the jury at Mr. Smith's trial was not allowed to consider his low IQ of 78 and that he was a 19-year-old ninth-grader as mitigating factors...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on March 28, 2008 (boomark / email).