FRANKFORT — The House budget committee Tuesday voted to impose a two-year moratorium on executing death-row inmates who are mentally retarded or were juveniles when they committed murder.

        The moratorium is tucked into the executive-branch budget bill as language to withhold state funding.

        Opponents of capital punishment, some of whom are on the committee, have tried but failed to get the General Assembly to ban such executions outright.

        The Appropriations and Revenue Committee approved the bill on the second day of a special legislative session convened to pass a state budget.

        For the most part, the committee nibbled around the edges of the budget plan proposed by Gov. Paul Patton. But the committee weighed in on the divisive social issue of capital punishment.

        It voted to insert amendments into Mr. Patton's budget to withhold state funds for executions of any prisoner who committed murder while a minor or who was mentally retarded. The effect would be a moratorium for two years, which covers the period of the budget.

        Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, said the moratoriums were appropriate while a criminal-justice council conducts a study of the death penalty.

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