Death Sentence Commuted In Va. Case

For Atkins himself, however, the high court decision was not enough. The Supreme Court left unsettled the question of whether Atkins was mentally retarded.

Since then, Virginia has tried to determine what the standard for mental retardation is, and whether Atkins meets it.

In 2005, York County became one of the first jurisdictions to hold an extended trial on the question of whether a death-row prisoner met the test for mental retardation, which in Virginia includes both a low IQ score and "significant limitations in adaptive behavior" before age 18.

In that trial, a jury decided that Atkins did not qualify as mentally retarded under legal criteria -- and thus faced execution again.

But in 2006, the case was overturned again, when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the jurors deciding the mental retardation issue should not have been told that another jury had put Atkins on death row.

As Atkins's attorneys were preparing for another hearing on the question of mental retardation, they were told, by a lawyer for Atkins's codefendant, that he had been bothered for years by prosecutors' interview of his client.

Lawyer Leslie P. Smith testified that the tape recorder was turned off at a point during the interview when Jones's statements were inconsistent with forensic evidence.

Prosecutors let Smith know of the inconsistency and said it was a problem, he testified.

In announcing his decision, Smiley said he would not consider ordering a new trial, which he said would be "a waste of everybody's time" because innocence was not an issue. But he said he felt the reduction of punishment was necessary.

"The court finds there was favorable, potential impeachable evidence possessed by the commonwealth," he said.