Two-time convicted killer who avoided execution dies in prison from cancer

A two-time convicted killer who avoided the death penalty because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against executing the mentally retarded died in an Alabama prison Sunday.

James Henry Borden Jr., 65, was an inmate at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility. Borden was convicted and sentenced to die for the Sept. 5, 1993, murder of 63-year-old Nellie Ledbetter, who was slain in front of her young grandchildren.

Borden died from pancreatic cancer in the prison infirmary at 7:53 p.m., said Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates. He had been in the infirmary since Dec. 22, and had a do-not-resuscitate order.

Borden, also convicted of a murder 20 years prior to Ledbetter's death, was one of three men who drove to Ledbetter's home near Moulton. The other two men stayed in the car, according to a Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama case summary, while Borden began talking to Ledbetter, who was sitting on the porch with her two grandchildren.

When Ledbetter's husband came out onto the porch, Borden and his companions left. Borden returned alone about 45 minutes later, put a knife to her throat and told her to come with him. When she refused, he fatally stabbed her in the stomach and chest.

He was convicted of capital murder because of his previous murder conviction, the Associated Press reported at the time.

In 2002, the Supreme Court issued a decision that said mentally retarded killers can't be executed. Experts determined Borden had an IQ of 53.

In 2005, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals agreed that Borden should not face the death penalty.

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