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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Pennsylvania: Man with 74 IQ can't be executed for Philadelphia officer slaying

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Pennsylvania's high court says a man convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer can't be executed because he has an IQ of 74.

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that Edward Bracey's below-average intellectual functioning made him ineligible for the death penalty.

Bracey is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in the 1991 murder of 21-year-old officer Daniel Boyle.

Boyle's sister, Kathleen Wrigley, is the wife of North Dakota Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley.

The Pennsylvania court voted 4-1 to uphold Judge M. Teresa Sarmina's January 2014 ruling sparing the 52-year-old Bracey.

The U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of anyone deemed mentally disabled by a state.

Source: Associated Press, June 20, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
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