USA - Virginia. Daryl Atkins, the death row inmate whose case led to the national ban on executing the mentally retarded, will spend life in prison

Daryl Atkins, the death row inmate whose case led to the national ban on executing the mentally retarded, will spend life in prison. In a 5-2 decision today, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld a judge's order commuting the sentence of Daryl Atkins to life in prison. Atkins, 31, was sentenced to die for the Aug. 17, 1996, murder of Eric Nesbitt, 21. Atkins claimed to be mentally retarded and on June 20, 2002 (see) his case led the U.S. Supreme Court to bar the execution of people who are mentally retarded. But the high court left it up to Virginia to decide whether Atkins was mentally retarded. A new jury then decided Atkins wasn't retarded and again imposed the death sentence, but Judge Prentiss Smiley Jr. commuted the sentence after finding prosecutors failed to turn over key evidence at the trial. The Chesterfield County commonwealth's attorney's office, appointed special prosecutor in the case, said the matter was sent back to Smiley to retry only the issue of whether Atkins is mentally retarded. John A. Gibney, lawyer for Smiley, who died last year, countered that Smiley clearly had the power to enter the order after finding that Atkins' conviction was flawed. Today the Virginia Supreme Court agreed.