Today's El Paso Times reports, "Hearing to decide if convicted killer David Leonard Wood will die starts today." It's by Diana Washington Valdez.
A hearing begins today to determine whether convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood is mentally retarded and should be spared the death penalty.
The presiding judge will submit the findings and recommendations to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The high court stayed Wood's execution two years ago to give his lawyers time to prepare his case.
Court records indicate that Wood's witnesses for the hearing may include a retired El Paso elementary school teacher and a sister who's lived elsewhere in Texas.
A Dallas jury convicted Wood in 1992 in the murders of six teenage girls and young women whose bodies were found buried in the Northeast El Paso desert. He was sentenced to death.
And:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia that executing a mentally retarded person constitutes cruel and unjust punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The Texas Health and Safety Code states that " 'Mental retardation' means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning that is concurrent with deficits in adaptive behavior and originates
during the developmental period."
It also states that a doctor or state-certified psychologist can determine whether someone is mentally retarded.
The threshold for mental retardation includes an IQ test score of 70, plus or minus a few points, below-average intellectual function, and deficiencies in adaptive behavior.
"Mental Retardation Hearing Begins For Local Serial Killer," is the KFOX-TV report by Jacob Rascon.
A hearing to determine whether local serial killer David Leonard Wood is mentally retarded and should be spared the death penalty for decades-old killings began on Tuesday.
A former teacher of Wood's, a former friend and his elder sister testified that he was a slow learner.
The defense rested and the prosecution will begin calling witnesses on Wednesday.
Wood was convicted in 1992 of capital murder and sentenced to death for killing five teenage girls and a 26-year-old woman. All were murdered and buried in desert areas of the northeast in 1987.
In August, 2009, the day before Wood was scheduled to be executed, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted him a stay of execution to allow his attorneys to prepare to argue that he is mentally retarded.
Earlier this year, an unrelated hearing was held in the Wood case; coverage begins at the link.
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. Related posts are in the mental retardation index.
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