USA - Idaho. George Junior Porter, a former death row inmate, entered an Alford plea today to 2nd-degree murder

George Junior Porter, a former death row inmate, entered an Alford plea today to 2nd-degree murder in the 1988 death of his girlfriend, Teresa S. Jones. Under such a plea, he does not admit guilt but acknowledges prosecutors could likely prove the charge. 2nd District Judge John H. Bradbury accepted the plea, which requires Porter to be eligible for parole not before Dec. 5, 2013. The 52-year-old Porter had been sentenced to death for Jones' murder in 1990, but on April 15, 2003 (see) Second District Judge John Bradbury overturned the sentence alter the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision to bar the execution of the mentally retarded. Porter's attorneys appealed the death sentence, saying their client has an IQ near 70. Idaho prosecutors negotiated the plea rather than risk taking the case to trial again.