for the 1st time, a condemned Alabama killer has avoided the death penalty

for the 1st time, a condemned Alabama killer has avoided the death penalty because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against executing the mentally retarded. 
In a 5-0 decision, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals said the death penalty can't be used against James Henry Borden Jr.
The judges agreed with the attorney general's staff that Borden's sentence must be changed from death to life in prison without parole because of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2002 decision that said mentally retarded killers can't be executed. The Court of Criminal Appeals noted that an expert in a recent lower court proceeding determined Borden has an IQ of 53, and during his 1994 trial two experts put his IQ at 65 and 66. All scores fall in the range of mild mental retardation, the appeals court said. Borden, 55, was convicted and sentenced to die for the Sept. 5, 1993, murder of 63-year-old Nellie Ledbetter.