WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a federal judge was correct to hold a hearing on whether a convicted cop killer on Louisiana 's death row is intellectually disabled and therefore potentially ineligible for the death penalty.
The court, in a 5-4 decision, threw out an appeals court ruling that said Kevan Brumfield was not eligible for the special hearing in which the lower court judge found he was intellectually disabled. Brumfield will remain on death row for now, as the appeals court has yet to decide if the judge was correct to find that Brumfield was ineligible for the death penalty.
