New Jersey Court Required to Prove Accused Child Killer Not Mentally Retarded
A New Jersey appeals court on Wednesday said Morris County prosecutors must prove to a jury that accused child-killer Porfirio Jimenez is not mentally retarded before they can ask jurors to impose a death sentence.Prosecutor Michael Rubbinaccio promptly announced that he will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, even though it will cause further delay in scheduling the trial in the May 2001 murder of 10-year-old Walter Contreras Valenzuela in Morristown.
The prosecutor believes that the ruling puts an unreasonable burden on the state and is sure to affect all future capital punishment cases in the state where mental retardation is raised as an issue.
Rubbinaccio said that 26 other states have addressed the issue since a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ban on executing mentally retarded people found guilty of murder. The other states all call for the accused to prove to jurors that he or she is mentally retarded and have reached that point through statute or by court decision.
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Posted by beth at 11:44 AM
