9th Judicial District Judge W

9th Judicial District Judge W. Ross Foote, the same judge who presided over one of Adam Comeaux's penalty phase hearings, commuted Comeaux's death penalty to life in prison, without benefit of suspension, parole or probation. Foote said he had no choice, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that retarded prisoners cannot be executed. Comeaux's IQ measures about 65, 5 points under the number considered the beginning of the normal range. Comeaux's murder spree began in 1985, when he was 17. The runaway teenager beat a woman to death with a bottle, and raped her. Then, in Alexandria, beat and raped Ruby Voiselle Smith, 73, and her sister Ida Voiselle, 63. The jury gave him the death sentence in 1986 but the Supreme Court later ordered the court system to reconsider Comeaux's sentence due to a technicality. In 1993, the jury again gave Comeaux the death penalty.