Pa. Jury Spares Execution In Ohio Student Slayings

WASHINGTON, Pa.—A southwestern Pennsylvania jury has decided against the death penalty for a former Pittsburgh man accused of fatally shooting two Ohio college students in 1999.

Thursday’s verdict means 29-year-old Terrell Yarbrough will spend life in prison for slaying Franciscan University students Aaron Land, of Philadelphia, and Brian Muha, of Westerville, Ohio.

Yarbrough’s attorney says he was neglected by his heroin-addicted parents and has such a low IQ that his execution should be barred by a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning the execution of the mentally disabled.

Yarbrough was previously sentenced to death in Ohio. He was retried and convicted in Washington County, Pa., after the Ohio conviction was overturned because the killings happened in Pennsylvania.

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