x

Supreme Court rules out death penalty for Texas inmate

5 years 1 month 4 weeks ago Tuesday, February 19 2019 Feb 19, 2019 February 19, 2019 9:01 AM February 19, 2019 in News - AP Texas Headlines

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is ending a long legal fight by ruling that a Texas death row inmate is intellectually disabled and thus may not be executed.

The justices ruled 6-3 Tuesday in the case of inmate Bobby James Moore.

Moore had been sentenced to death for the 1980 shotgun slaying of a Houston grocery store clerk.

His lawyers argued for years that Moore was intellectually disabled, but Texas' top criminal appeals court rejected those claims, even after the Supreme Court strongly suggested in 2017 that Moore could not be executed because of his intellectual limitations.

In a twist, the Houston district attorney agreed with Moore that he should be spared the death penalty. Houston prosecutors originally persuaded a jury to sentence Moore to death.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

More News


Radar
7 Days