Court: Man with 74 IQ can’t be executed for officer slaying
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 tells the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota that the ruling was excruciating, unfair and not justice.
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.
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