Feb. 15, 2008, 10:49PM
AN END TO A LEGAL SAGA

Inmate who had death sentence overturned three times apologizes

By MIKE TOLSON
Houston Chronicle

LIVINGSTON — The long saga of convicted murderer Johnny Paul Penry, whose case helped push mental retardation into the national debate over capital punishment, ended Friday with a plea agreement to a life sentence.

Penry, one of Texas' best-known death row inmates, agreed to three life sentences and to a stipulation that he was not mentally retarded, in spite of what his lawyers have asserted for almost three decades. His death sentence had been overturned three times, most recently in 2005, because of problems in instructing the jury how to weigh the mitigating effect of his mental capacity.

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