USA - Arkansas. Sedrice Maurice Simpson moved off Arkansas' death row

Sedrice Maurice Simpson moved off Arkansas' death row after 11 years today after U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes commuted his death sentence. The state had agreed with Simpson's lawyers that he was mentally retarded and should not be executed. In a 2-page ruling Judge Holmes accepted their joint recommendation and ordered Simpson to serve 2 life sentences without the possibility of parole in the June 20, 1997 slayings of grocery clerks Wendy Pennington and Lena Sue Garner. At that time, Simpson was 25. Simpson was convicted of 2 counts of capital murder in 1998. In 2007, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted him a new hearing on his claim of mental retardation and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel hired a psychologist to test his IQ. State law prohibits execution of inmates with an IQ below 65. Simpson's IQ is 59, Holmes wrote in his ruling.