By THOMAS J. SHEERAN

Associated Press Writer

CANTON, Ohio (AP) - A judge in Ohio has spared a former police officer convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn daughter from the death penalty.

Jurors recommended a sentence of life in prison with the chance of parole after 30 years for Bobby Cutts Jr. Judge Charles Brown Jr. gave Cutts no chance of parole for 57 years.

http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/08a0095p-06.pdf

Having examined the record in this case, we determine that Petitioner was found to be mentally retarded, under the clinically accepted definition of mental retardation, by a final judgment of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Strickland may be sympathetic to claims of mental retardation

Barbara Raines' anger has festered 15 years and now she's turning that anger toward Gov. Ted Strickland.

Darryl Gumm and Michael Bies, the men sentenced to die for abducting and beating her 10-year-old son to death in 1992, have sat on Ohio's death row during appeal after appeal.

Each killer claims he is mentally retarded. If the courts agree, that means they can't be executed under a 2002 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that says executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional.

THE clamour for the death penalty is deafening.

Some 99 per cent of 100,000 voters in our poll demand its return.

Such an overwhelming response is no surprise after the killings of Garry Newlove, Sally Anne Bowman and the five Suffolk Strangler victims. Not to mention the anarchy that has erupted in some parts of Britain.

Death penalty: Your verdict

ALMOST 100,000 Sun readers unite today to call for the return of the death penalty.

Monster Mark Dixie, Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright and the teenage killers of hero dad Garry Newlove have sickened the nation in recent weeks as details emerged of their vile crimes.

All received jail sentences. But as the clamour grew for the return of capital punishment, The Sun on Saturday dared to ask the burning question: “Do we really want it back?”