The life of Monroe County's only death row inmate,...

The life of Monroe County's only death row inmate, Angel Mateo, was spared today. In its 107 page decision, the Court of Appeals in Albany upheld Mateo's conviction for 1st degree murder, but vacated 5-2 the death sentence handed up by a jury. Mateo was convicted of killing a mentally handicapped man in 1996. The court ruled New York's death penalty law, as it existed at the time of Mateo's trial, was unconstitutional. Besides the killing for which Mateo was condemned to die, he was also convicted of three other murders. Mateo will be re-sentenced in Rochester. He's already serving about 130 years for the other crimes, so there's no chance he'll ever be paroled.