PURVIS, Miss. (AP) - A one-time death row inmate was to be resentenced after a battery of tests found he was mentally retarded.

Howard Monteville Neal was convicted of shooting his brother, Bobby Neal, and raping and killing his 13-year-old niece and his niece's 14-year-old friend in February 1982.

The crime occurred in Lawrence County, but the case was tried in Lamar County.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 2003 case from Virginia, ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded defendants.

In 2007, the 55 year-old Neal underwent several tests at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield that determined Neal is mentally retarded.

Circuit Court Judge R.I. Prichard will preside over Friday's resentencing in Lamar County.