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Supreme Court to again examine issue of executing mentally retarded |
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November 29, 2000
HOUSTON-- (UNB/AP) - By intervening a second time in the case of a mentally impaired killer, the U.S. Supreme Court could finally set standards for when people with diminished mental capacity may be executed. Johnny Paul Penry, condemned for stabbing a woman to death in 1979, had his conviction overturned by the high court in 1988 because jurors were not fully able to consider his low IQ and abuse he suffered from his mother as a child. On Monday, the court agreed to hear defense claims that during Penry's 1990 retrial the jury again wasn't able to properly consider whether his history was a mitigating factor against the death penalty. The court expressed a willingness to clarify when a jury should consider the possible mental impairment of a defendant. Also, legal observers say there is a chance the justices could directly address the legality of executing the mentally retarded. "They may just reach the point where they agree with the rest of the Western world that execution of the mentally retarded is barbaric," said South Texas College of Law professor Neil McCabe. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the federal government and 12 of the 38 states with capital punishment do not allow execution of the mentally retarded. The group, which is critical of the death penalty, says 35 retarded men have been executed nationwide since 1984. On Nov. 16, the Supreme Court blocked Penry's execution hours before he was to be put to death. The execution remains on hold until the justices issue a ruling, expected by July. Texas Attorney General John Cornyn is confident the death sentence will be upheld. "We believe the jury was correctly instructed on the law and fully considered Penry's claim of mental incapacity and rejected it," Cornyn said Monday. Penry, 44, may be spared regardless of the ruling because the Texas Legislature will consider a bill this winter barring the execution of mentally retarded killers. The law would be retroactive, thus applying to Penry. Penry was on parole for rape when he was arrested in 1979 and charged with raping and murdering Pamela Moseley Carpenter, the 22-year-old sister of former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley. Carpenter was stabbed repeatedly but was able to describe her attacker before she died. Besides the muddled jury instructions, Penry's lawyers say prosecutors should not have been allowed to introduce as evidence a 1977 psychiatric exam in which a doctor said Penry posed a danger if released. Penry's lawyers said before submitting to the exam he was not warned his words could be used against him. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and death sentence last June, and neither Penry or his attorneys have denied his guilt. While the chance might be slim, veteran defense attorney Stanley Schneider said the high court could take the opportunity to make a firm statement about executing the mentally impaired, one way or the other. "We get back to the global issue of execution of the mentally retarded and how that fits into the larger (death penalty) issues," Schneider said. Seventy-nine people have been executed in the United States this year. On the Net: For the appeals court ruling: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html and click on 5th Circuit.
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