A former death row inmate in Mississippi will be resentenced a second time because of a determination that he has intellectual disabilities
A former death row inmate in Mississippi will be resentenced again because of a determination that he has intellectual disabilities — and the new sentence will make him eligible for the possibility of parole.
In a response Aug. 9, the state attorney general’s office agreed that Neal “is entitled to be resentenced to life imprisonment” with the possibility of parole.Neal was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to death for the 1981 kidnapping and killing of his 13-year-old half-niece, Amanda Joy Neal. The killing took place south of the state’s capital in Lawrence County, and the trial was moved to Lamar County.
According to court records in Mississippi, the state where he grew up, Neal was unable to advance past second grade by the time he was 10 years old, and he was then sent to schools for people with intellectual disabilities. In 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of another death row inmate with intellectual disabilities. State justices said the law on resentencing to life without parole would apply only if the death penalty were found unconstitutional for all inmates, not just those with intellectual disabilities.
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