03 July 2017 :

Federal government will not appeal vacated death sentence of cop killer Ronell Wilson. Convicted cop killer Ronell Wilson will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after the Department of Justice announced Monday that it will not appeal a judge's decision to vacate his death sentence. "After further consideration of all the pertinent legal issues, the government has decided not to pursue an appeal of the district court's finding that Ronell Wilson was intellectually disabled," a statement from the DOJ read. On March 15, 2016 (see), District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, of Brooklyn Federal Court, vacated Wilson's July 2013 death sentence ruling that the U.S. Constitution "forbids the execution of intellectually disabled persons." Wilson, now 35, was convicted in December 2006 in front of the same judge for the execution style-murder of undercover NYPD Detectives James Nemorin, 36, and Rodney Andrews, 34. Juries sentenced the former gang member to death twice -- once in January 2007, and again in 2013 -- for the double slaying that happened after a gun buy-and-bust operation gone wrong. Garaufis ruled in 2013 that Wilson was not mentally incapacitated, but was ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reconsider his decision. In a landmark 2002 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found that executing those with mental retardation violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Such persons typically have an IQ below 70.