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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2001

The Attorney General of North Carolina is asking the Supreme Court to dismiss a death penalty case because the state now has a ban on the execution of mentally retarded convicts.

But the inmate in question, Ernest McCarver, may not benefit from the law because he doesn't qualify. Still, prosecutors say he could be declared mentally unfit by a state judge and taken off death row.

In March, the Supreme Court agreed to hear McCarver's case to consider whether executing mentally retarded convicts is unconstitutional. Legal scholars say a dismissal could delay an answer on the issue for a year or more.

The Supreme Court has also halted the execution of an Alabama man said to have an IQ of 69.

Get the Story:
Court Asked to Dismiss N.C. Death Row Appeal (The Washington Post 8/8)

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