Disabled Man Executed In 1939 Pardoned In Colorado

DENVER (AP) -- Outgoing Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter says he has pardoned a mentally disabled man executed more than 70 years ago in Colorado because, "It is in the interests of justice and simple decency."

Twenty-three-year-old Joe Arridy was executed in 1939 after he was convicted of killing a Pueblo, Colo., girl with a hatchet.

He confessed to the killing of 15-year-old Dorothy Drain after he was picked up for vagrancy in Cheyenne, Wyo. After the Wyoming sheriff learned Arridy was from Pueblo, the sheriff got Arridy to confess.

Ritter says an overwhelming amount of evidence now suggests Arridy, who had an IQ of 46, didn't commit the crime.

The hatchet that killed Drain was later discovered in the home of a man Arridy had never met. That man denied the killing.

Ritter also pardoned 18 other people Friday.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)