Attorneys for Antonio D. Chance, the suspect in the August 2006 murder of Cynthia Moreland, contend that Chance is mentally retarded, a designation that would make him ineligible for the death penalty.

The lawyers for Chance, 30, filed a motion today asking that a judge hold a pretrial hearing to determined whether Chance is retarded. His trial is set for October.

Moreland, 48, a Progress Energy employee, was kidnapped from a downtown Raleigh parking deck Aug. 22, 2006. Her partially nude body was found Sept. 1 behind an abandoned house in a rural part of Harnett County. A medical examiner indicated that she died of strangulation.

Attorneys Karl Knudsen and Wake Public Defender Bryan Collins said in the motion today that Chance had scored 69, 75, 75, 67 and 67 on IQ tests on different occasions. IQ scores of less than 70 are an indication of retardation.

A report by a Ginger Calloway, a Raleigh psychologist, indicated that Chance's mother drank when she was pregnant with him. He repeated kindergarten, fourth and ninth grades, according to Calloway's report.

He dropped out of school when he was 17 and in the ninth grade because of a 1994 conviction that sent him to prison for sexually assaulting and robbing a 32-year-old man in Fuquay-Varina. He was released in 1998 and later convicted of failing to register as a sex offender, earning him two more years in prison.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that it is unlawful to execute a person who is mentally retarded. About the same time, North Carolina passed a law banning the execution of the mentally retarded.

Fourteen people have been taken off death row since then, said Ken Rose, a senior staff member with the Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

North Carolina's law gives precise outlines of what constitutes mental retardation: In addition to showing IQ scores of less than 70, defendants must exhibit signs of retardation before the age of 18 and display difficulties in adapting to everyday life.

If a district attorney's office agrees to a hearing, then a judge must hold one. Otherwise, it is up to a judge to decide whether to hold a hearing before trial.

Colon Willoughby, Wake's district attorney, said he hasn't yet reviewed the lengthy documents attached to Chance's request.

Willoughby said the issue has come up recently in various cases.

"It's become an issue that's being raised in many cases around the state," he said.

Another Wake County murder suspect, Joseph Sanderlin, also has asked a pretrial hearing on grounds of mental retardation. Willoughby opposed that motion, and no judge has ruled whether to have a hearing or to let trial jurors decide whether Sanderlin is retarded.

Sanderlin would be the second man to be tried in the rape and stabbing death of Lauren Redman in her West Raleigh apartment in November 2005.

Attorneys for Byron Waring, Sanderlin's co-defendant, raised mental competency issues at his trial. But a jury sentenced him to death in July 2007. He currently is on death row.

Executions have been on hold in North Carolina for more than a year because of legal issues regarding the method of execution.