Female death row inmate denied high court review

By Bill Mears
CNN Supreme Court Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a female death row inmate who claimed her fetal alcohol syndrome should have been considered by the state court that reviewed her sentence.

The justices gave no reason for rejecting the appeal, which challenged the constitutionality of Louisiana's capital sentencing procedures and argued that Brandy Holmes' alleged developmental disabilities should disqualify her from execution.

Holmes, 29, is one of only two women scheduled to be executed in Louisiana. She and a male co-defendant were convicted of murder in the New Year's Day 2003 death of Julian Brandon, a retired minister near Shreveport. She is being held at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women at St. Gabriel.

Experts on fetal alcohol syndrome call it the nation's leading preventable cause of mental retardation. An advocacy group says as many as 40,000 newborns in the United States are affected each year by their mother's alcohol use. The syndrome can lead to brain damage, behavioral problems and intellectual disabilities.

Holmes' lawyers say she functions like a 10- to 12-year-old.