Idaho Supreme Court voids death sentence

AP, Aug. 7, 2002
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/07/idaho.death.penalty.ap/index.html

BOISE, Idaho (AP) –Citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that “appears to invalidate the death penalty scheme in Idaho,” the state’s high court has thrown out a convicted killer’s death sentence.

The Idaho Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday ordered the resentencing of Donald Fetterly. The five-paragraph decision set aside issues raised in challenging his conviction and execution until the new sentence is imposed.

“Whether those issues will remain following resentencing in this district court is problematic and speculative,” the unanimous court said.

Fetterly, 49, sentenced to death for the 1983 stabbing death of Sterling Grammer. Tuesday’s ruling made no reference to 21 other inmates on Idaho’s death row, whose sentences are in various stages of appeal.

Prosecution and defense attorneys disagreed on the effect of Tuesday’s decision, but both sides acknowledge it would take further rulings by the court to clarify the status of the state’s death penalty law.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court held that in the sentencing phase of a capital crime a jury, not the judge, must decide whether the aggravating factors are sufficient to warrant execution.

Without explanation, the Idaho Supreme Court said that ruling “appears” to invalidate the state’s death penalty legislation.

The attorney general’s office has maintained that only a handful of Idaho’s death row cases could be affected by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling — Fetterly among them __ because the juries in finding guilt did not specifically find aggravating circumstances in the murders.
[...]

Separately, in California, a Senate committee approved by 4-1 a bill Tuesday that would allow inmates to prove they are retarded to avoid the death penalty. The decision follows another U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the execution of mentally retarded inmates is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court’s ruling allows California and 19 other states that permit execution of the mentally retarded to legally define retardation. The generally accepted clinical definition is someone having an IQ of about 70 or lower.

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