Sherman Elwood Skipper, 59, on North Carolina's death...

Sherman Elwood Skipper, 59, on North Carolina's death row is the 1st in the state to have his sentence reduced under a new state law banning executions for the mentally retarded. " Skipper was mentally retarded prior to and at the time of the commission of the capital offense which resulted in the imposition of death sentences," Superior Court Judge B. Craig Ellis said in reducing Skipper's sentence to 2 life terms. Skipper was the 1st prisoner to challenge his death sentence under the law that was approved this year. Prisoners now on death row have until the end of January to file appeals. Skipper was convicted in the 1990 murders of his girlfriend, Aileane Pittman, and her grandson, Nelson Fipps Jr.