USA: DEATH SENTENCE OVERTURNED

January 15, 2011: US District Judge Ginger Berrigan has overturned the death sentence of Paul Hardy on the grounds that he was mentally retarded.
Hardy, now 38, black, is a drug dealer convicted of killing a witness, Kim Groves (32, black), on the orders of a corrupt New Orleans police officer, Len Davis (black). Davis in 1994 ordered Hardy to kill Groves after she filed a brutality complaint against Davis and his patrol partner.
Groves (black) was gunned down October 13, 1994 outside of her home. A cell-phone conversation planning the murder was secretly recorded by federal agents as part of a probe into police corruption. A jury in July 1996 found Hardy and Davis, now 42, guilty of first degree-murder and sentenced both men to die. U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan, who sentenced Hardy and Davis to death after their trial in 1996, found that Hardy is not eligible for death under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the execution of the mentally disabled. Berrigan scheduled re-sentencing for March 2, noting that Hardy faces a mandatory penalty of life in prison. The U.S. Attorney's office is appealing Berrigan's ruling to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Davis, whose sentence is under appeal, remains one of 60 inmates on federal death row. (Sources: WWL TV News, 15/01/2011)