Court rejects Texas appeal in murder case

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is turning down Texas' attempt to get a death sentence reimposed on a convicted killer who lower courts have found is mentally impaired.

The justices rejected the state's appeal Monday in the case of Eric Lynn Moore, one of four men convicted of the December 1990 murder of Helen Ayers during a robbery at her home north of Dallas.

The high court ruled in 2002 that mentally retarded defendants may not be executed. The state disputes that Moore is mentally retarded and also says federal courts should have deferred to state judges who ruled that he could be executed.

The case is Thaler v. Moore, 09-627.