No Death Sentence for Delusional Inmate
Gov. Mitch Daniels spared the life of a man who was to be executed Wednesday, saying the inmate was delusional two decades ago when he rejected a plea agreement for a life sentence.
Daniels commuted Arthur Baird’s death sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Baird had been facing death by lethal injection at the state prison in Michigan City for killing his parents in 1985.
Daniels cited “certain unusual, probably unique, circumstances” in the case, including the fact that Indiana law at the time of Baird’s trial did not provide for juries to consider a sentence of life without parole.
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