Kansas court avoids ruling on execution for student's death

Legal Compliance

The Kansas Supreme Court has postponed a decision on whether the state can execute a man convicted of kidnapping, raping and

strangling a 19-year-old college student.

The high court on Friday upheld the capital murder conviction of Justin Eugene Thurber but returned his case to a lower court for another

review of whether he's developmentally disabled.

The U.S. Supreme Court has deemed it unconstitutional to execute defendants with even mild developmental disabilities.

Thurber was sentenced to lethal injection for the January 2007 killing of Jodi Sanderholm. She was a pre-pharmacy student and dance

team member at Cowley College.

The trial judge rejected the defense's request for a hearing on whether Thurber is developmentally disabled, ruling that the defense

hadn't presented enough evidence to warrant it.

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