May Trial Court Affirm Death Sentence When Both Defense and State Experts Find Offender Retarded?
State of Ohio v. Clifton White, III, Case no. 2006-0295 9th District Court of Appeals (Summit County) ISSUE: In an ” Atkins ” hearing to determine whether an offender’s death sentence must be reduced to life imprisonment because the offender is mentally retarded, does the trial court commit reversible error in holding that the defendant has not proven his retardation by a preponderance of the evidence when the expert psychologists who examined the defendant and testified at the hearing on behalf of the state and the defense both concluded that the defendant is mentally retarded? BACKGROUND: Clifton White III of Akron was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death for the December 1995 shotgun slaying of Deborah Thorpe, the mother of Michael Thorpe, who had begun dating White’s former girlfriend, Heather Kawczk. White also was convicted of shooting and killing Kawczk’s mother and shooting and severely wounding Michael Thorpe, who intervened when White confronted Kawczk at gun
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