News Brief— Sonny Boy Oats to Come Off Florida’s Death Row After 39 Years

NEWS (2/6/20): Sonny Boy Oats will come off Florida’s death row after 39 years, prosecutors announced on February 6. Oats was convicted and sentenced to death in Marion County in 1981. His lawyers have argued that executing Oats would be unconstitutional because he is intellectually disabled. With eight of nine psychiatrists and psychologists who evaluated Oats concluding that he is intellectually disabled, State Attorney Ric Ridgway told the court that his office would no longer contest Oats’ claim.