That's the title of an article in Saturday's Houston Chronicle reporting on the failure of the Texas Legislature to correct state law in light in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia which outlawed executing offenders with mental retardation. LINK
Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally retarded killers, 16 death row inmates from Harris County are still waiting to have their appeals on the issue resolved.
"This is a really unique situation," Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson, chief of the DA's division dealing with the claims, said of the bubble. "We won't see this again."
The cases may get speedier resolution with judges across the state facing an order, issued last summer by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, to wrap up more of these cases.
Since the 2002 ban, six of the 454 inmates then on Texas' death row have had their sentences commuted to life in prison after proving they are retarded. One of those, Robert Smith, commuted in 2004, was from Harris County.
Of the 131 inmates on death row from Harris County, 16 have retardation claims pending.
And:
As these cases proceed, some experts wonder how many retarded inmates in Texas may be masking their retardation, ultimately missing the chance to escape lethal injection.
"For these people, the worst thing in the world is if people think they're dumb," said Jim Ellis, a lawyer and death penalty opponent who argued the case that persuaded the Supreme Court to order the ban.
From being called names as a child to having problems getting even menial jobs, he said, the retarded must navigate a world in which it's never advantageous to admit their disability.
So, Ellis said, they fake their way through the criminal-justice system.
Ellis said he has seen cases in which a retardation claim was the only thing that could save a defendant's life, but the person still worked hard to not appear retarded.
This may mean there are defendants with retardation on death row, refusing to acknowledge their disability.
Of course, one of those cases involves Johnny Paul Penry, whom the state once conceded had mental retardation. Following the Court's ruling in Atkins, however, prosecutors in charge of Penry's case now maintain that he is not mentally retarded. More on the issue is here.
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