Brooklyn Judge: Man on death row for killing 2 cops can’t be executed
A man on death row for killing two undercover NYPD officers cannot be put to death because he meets the legal standard to be considered intellectually disabled, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
In his 76-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis vacated a prior order that sentenced Ronell Wilson to death and instead sentenced him to life in federal prison without parole.
The judge conducted a hearing in 2012 and found that Wilson’s IQ scores seemed to show he had sufficient intellectual functioning. However, the judge did not consider other evidence of deficits in his “adaptive functioning,” or how well he interacts with society or cares for himself.