Retarded strangler has deal to leave Pa. death row [View All]

[The Straight Story]

Retarded strangler has deal to leave Pa. death row


ERIE, Pa.—A man who strangled a 68-year-old Pennsylvania woman in 1994 will get off death row and spend life in prison instead.

Forty-year-old Jose Marrero was sentenced to death in October 1994. He murdered 68-year-old Elizabeth Smith, of Erie, after breaking into her apartment in January 1994.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated Marrero's death sentence in 2006 after state and federal rulings barred the execution of mentally retarded defendants. Marrero's IQ has been tested in the mid-50s, lower than the American Psychiatric Association's 70-point standard for retardation.

Marrero will be resentenced Thursday via teleconference in Erie County. District Attorney Brad Foulk says he agreed to the life sentence without parole because he can't prove Marrero isn't retarded.

http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_11371099