Post by sclcookie on May 31, 2006 2:12:31 GMT -5
Court backs man's death sentence
The state's highest court has denied a local man's effort to have his death sentence tossed on the grounds that he is mentally retarded.
The inmate, Melvin Trotter, 45, who fatally stabbed a 70-year-old woman during a robbery of a convenience store, remains on death row.
None of the mental health experts who tested Trotter as an adult found that he met the legal criteria of mental retardation, the Florida Supreme Court said Thursday in a 17-page opinion.
Early diagnostic tests taken when Trotter was a teenager in Manatee County schools revealed mental retardation, according to his attorney, Peter J. Cannon.
Trotter has a history of learning difficulties.
But his disabilities, according to state prosecutors, stem in part because Trotter started school at age 9 and grew up in poverty.
(source: The Herald Tribune)
The state's highest court has denied a local man's effort to have his death sentence tossed on the grounds that he is mentally retarded.
The inmate, Melvin Trotter, 45, who fatally stabbed a 70-year-old woman during a robbery of a convenience store, remains on death row.
None of the mental health experts who tested Trotter as an adult found that he met the legal criteria of mental retardation, the Florida Supreme Court said Thursday in a 17-page opinion.
Early diagnostic tests taken when Trotter was a teenager in Manatee County schools revealed mental retardation, according to his attorney, Peter J. Cannon.
Trotter has a history of learning difficulties.
But his disabilities, according to state prosecutors, stem in part because Trotter started school at age 9 and grew up in poverty.
(source: The Herald Tribune)