Clifton White

Hat tip to Jeralyn at TalkLeft (who's blog I read every day, by the way -- I encourage you to do so as well) for noting this case.

Ohio will not get the chance to kill Clifton White. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the lower court judge in White's case had overstepped his authority when he substituted his own expertise for that of experts in finding that Clifton White was not mentally retarded and, therefore, could be subject to execution.

Jeralyn provides links to the opinion and some snippets in her post so I won't bore you with more, but this is a big deal. Judges are not experts on everything. They should not get to decide who lives and who dies against the recommendations of those who are, in fact, experts on a subject.

Here's an article from the New York Times.