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.