Michael Landauer posts, "We don't kill the mentally retarded. But how do we decide if someone can be executed?" at the Dallas Morning News Death Penalty blog.
A very troubling story in the New York Times late last week. It seems that the psychologist who "examined" death row inmates to determine if they were mentally retarded has been reprimanded for, well, quackery.
As part of a settlement, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists issued a reprimand against Dr. George Denkowski, whose testing methods have been sharply criticized by other psychologists and defense lawyers as unscientific. Dr. Denkowski agreed not to conduct intellectual disability evaluations in future criminal cases and to pay a fine of $5,500. In return, the board dismissed the complaints against him.So what did the good doctor do that other, better doctors and researchers had a problem with? He ignored established tests for determining mental capacity and substituted his own, which he says corrected for cultural differences. Hey, maybe some cultures just don't teach kids how to read a menu or what a thermometer is used for, he reasoned.
In a 2006 evaluation of Steven Butler, who was convicted in the killing of a store clerk, Dr. Denkowski rejected other I.Q. test scores that indicated Mr. Butler was well below average intelligence. He discounted behavioral evaluations from Mr. Butler's family and friends, who said the young man could not understand the rules of basketball, had to have others read menus for him and had failed basic classes.In perhaps the strangest twist in this agreement, both sides said that this public slap-down cannot be used in death penalty appeals. Why the hell not? (Fortunately, defense lawyers plan to challenge this.)
The Investigative Fund carries, "Death Row Psychologist Reprimanded." It's posted by Jed Bickman.
Texas psychologist George Denkowski will never again evaluate inmates' IQ to determine if they are mentally disabled — and thus unable to face the death penalty — or not. The Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists has issued him a reprimand. He will also pay a fine of $5,500. All of which is good news for the fourteen inmates on Death Row who Denkowski, using highly criticized and faulty methods, determined were not mentally handicapped. It comes too late for the two inmates who have already been executed after Denkowski found them mentally capable.
Last January, in a Texas Observer cover story, Investigative Fund reporter Reneé Feltz exposed the questionable methods and junk science used by psychologist George Denkowski in an article about the Texas death penalty case of Mexican immigrant Daniel Plata. In the 2002 Atkins v. Virginia ruling, the Supreme Court stated that "executions of mentally retarded criminals are cruel and unusual." Defense lawyers called Denkowski "Dr. Death" for his finding twenty-one of the twenty-nine inmates he has worked with to be mentally capable — and thus eligible for the death penalty. Feltz showed that he routinely inflated the inmates’ IQ scores through faulty methods.
And:
Defense attorney Robert Morrow told Feltz, "Denkowski pretty much thought that if you had engaged in criminal behavior you were not retarded." Morrow represented Alfred DeWayne Brown, who remains on Death Row, but whose case may receive more scrutiny in light of last week's settlement.
On April 13, Denkowski reached a settlement with the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, which issued a formal reprimand against him and dismissed, with prejudice, the complaints against him. Under the terms of the settlement, Denkowski has agreed to never again conduct intellectual disability evaluations in criminal cases.
Defense attorneys for the fourteen inmates currently on Death Row believe that last week's settlement will provide new hope for their clients, who they argue are mentally handicapped, to escape execution.
The decision is a small victory in the larger fight to bring justice to the death penalty system. State Senator Rodey Ellis of Houston, chairman of the Innocence Project, said that the courts should review every case involving Denkowski. "We cannot simply shrug our shoulders and sit by and watch while the state uses legal technicalities to execute these intellectually disabled men," he said.
Earlier coverage of the Denkowski sanction begins at the link. Feltz' earlier reporting is noted at the link.
Related posts are in the mental retardation category index. More on Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling banning the execution of those with mental retardation, is via Oyez.
As I often point out, mental retardation is now generally referred to as a developmental or intellectual disability. Because it has a specific meaning with respect to capital cases, I continue to use the older term.
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