Just because a person can drive a car, pay bills and play a computer game doesn't mean he isn't mentally retarded, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today

Just because a person can drive a car, pay bills and play a computer game doesn't mean he isn't mentally retarded, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today in a decision that will remove a man from death row. The court unanimously vacated Clifton White III's death sentence because White, 35, qualifies under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2002 that it is cruel and unusual punishment to execute retarded inmates. White killed the mothers of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in 1995. He has been on death row since late 1996. At a 2004 hearing in Summit County Common Pleas Court to determine if White was mentally retarded, expert psychologists selected by prosecutors and defense lawyers who tested White testified he met all the criteria to be classified as retarded. But visiting Judge Thomas Currin ruled White was not retarded after erroneously putting more credence on testimony by White's former girlfriend, Heather Kawczk, who said White drove, taught her to play card games, played "Mortal Kombat," a fast-paced video game, and could cook, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled. "The mentally retarded are not necessarily devoid of all adaptive skills," wrote Justice Robert Cupp. The decision reversed Currin's 2005 ruling, which was upheld by the 9th Ohio District Court of Appeals. It will not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Mary Ann Kovach of the Summit County prosecutor's office. White will be resentenced to life in prison with a chance for parole in 20, 25 or 30 years, Kovach said. White was sentenced to death for the Christmas Eve 1995 murder of Deborah Thorpe and Julie Schrey.