George Smithey had been on death row at San Quentin since 1989.
A 70-year-old inmate who had just been removed in the death row has decided to end his life a week after the reprieve.
George Smithey, a 70-year-old convict at San Quentin, hanged himself with a noose made of bed sheets in his cell over the weekend.
A Calaveras County judge overruled Smithey’s death sentence Aug.23, had been on death row for the murder, robbery and attempted rape of a woman in 1988.
The judge thought that Smithey was mentally retarded, a defense that was rejected in his initial trial in 1989. His sentence was change to life prisonment without parole.
In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mentally retarded criminals cannot be executed because it violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Lt. Sam Robinson, San Quentin State Prison spokesman, said he did not know if Smithey had learned his death sentence had been reprieved. Authorities found no note.
source MSNBC
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