The state has agreed it will not seek to execute a...

The state has agreed it will not seek to execute a Mexican man whose attorneys say he is mentally retarded, and in return the inmate will drop appeals of his murder conviction. A federal judge approved the agreement between state prosecutors and attorneys for Raphael Camargo, 39, who was convicted of killing a young mother and her son. His lawyers argued that he had an IQ of only 55 and should not be executed under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that executions of the mentally retarded criminals were unconstitutionally cruel. Camargo was convicted of killing Deanna Petree, 18, and her son, Jonathan Macias, who was 15 months old. He was sentenced to death in 1995 and again in 1997, after the state Supreme Court upheld the conviction but ordered resentencing. Camargo was 1 of 52 Mexican inmates in American jails that the World Court said had not been given proper legal assistance via their government. That decision was not at issue in court Thursday.