Retarded Man’s Death Sentence Is Commuted
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From Times Wire Reports
Texas Gov. Rick Perry commuted the death sentence of a mentally retarded Houston man to life in prison in a rare legal victory for a death row inmate in the nation’s leading death penalty state.
Robert Smith, 35, had been awaiting execution since his conviction for the 1990 murder of James Wilcox during a robbery. It is the first death sentence put aside in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court banned executions for the mentally retarded in 2002.
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