Post by sclcookie on May 29, 2006 0:54:44 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)