Indiana officials drop execution bid in 7-year-old's death

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — Indiana prosecutors have quietly dropped efforts seeking the execution of an Ohio inmate for her role in killing a 7-year-old girl during a 1984 crime spree.

The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports that the Lake County prosecutor and the Indiana attorney general's office signed an agreement last month withdrawing a demand for the execution of 56-year-old Debra Denise Brown.

She and Alton Coleman received death sentences for killing Tamika Turks of Gary, Indiana, and murders in Ohio. Coleman was executed in Ohio in 2002, while Brown's Ohio sentence was commuted to life in prison on grounds that she was mentally disabled.

Indiana attorney general spokeswoman Melissa Gustafson says U.S. Supreme Court rulings prohibit Brown's execution because of her disability.

Tamika Turks' mother says she's angry she wasn't notified about the decision.

___

Information from: The Times, http://www.nwitimes.com

Share this article: