That's the title of an editorial in today's New York Times on the Texas case of Marvin Wilson.
Marvin Wilson, with an I.Q. of 61, is scheduled to be put to death in Texas on Tuesday. His execution would directly contradict the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia that “the mentally retarded should be categorically excluded from execution” because of “their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment and control of their impulses.” The court should accept Mr. Wilson’s case for review and end Texas’s illegal defiance of its explicit holding that the death penalty for the mentally retarded is unconstitutional.
The court found a national consensus against executing the retarded. But it said states must apply professional standards in identifying people with retardation because “not all people who claim to be mentally retarded will be so impaired as to fall within the range of mentally retarded offenders about whom there is a national consensus.”
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in a 2004 ruling perversely read that directive to mean that the state could devise its own restricted test for retardation. It bluntly rejected the Supreme Court’s “categorical rule making such offenders ineligible for the death penalty.” It defiantly refused to recognize “a ‘mental retardation’ bright-line exemption” even for those who “legitimately qualify” as mentally retarded for other purposes.
The Texas court’s ruling was the basis for its rejection of mental retardation claims in at least 10 death penalty cases.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has deepened this injustice. It has repeatedly denied habeas corpus appeals by death row inmates under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, insisting that state court rejections of mental retardation claims were not “contrary to” or “an unreasonable application” of “clearly established federal law.”
And:
The court must stop this cruel and unconstitutional execution of a mentally retarded man.
"Advocates: Don't Execute Mentally Retarded Man," is Brandi Grissom's Texas Tribune post.
A state senator joined anti-death penalty advocates on Friday in calling on Texas to halt next week's execution of Marvin Wilson, whose lawyers argue he is mentally retarded.
“Unfortunately, Texas continues to circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s categorical ban on the execution of offenders with mental retardation by developing its own set of determining factors for who will be exempt from execution," state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said in a press release.
Wilson, who was convicted of shooting to death 21-year-old Jerry Robert Williams of Beaumont nearly 20 years ago, is set to die on Tuesday. His lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the standard Texas courts use to determine mental retardation is unreasonable and asking the court to clarify how states should gauge mental competency for execution.
And:
In their petition to the Supreme Court, Wilson's lawyers argue that the Texas criteria "lack any scientific foundation" and unfairly exclude people who would otherwise legitimately be considered clinically mentally retarded.
"It is consistent with an approach that has gotten more and more aggressive in violating the rule that states cannot execute people with mental retardation through a process of defining that category down," said Wilson’s attorney, Lee Kovarsky, an assistant professor of law at the University of Maryland.
Wilson's lawyers said he scored a 61 on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, placing him below the first percentile of human intelligence. Defense experts have diagnosed Wilson with mild retardation in comparison to others with the same diagnosis. And, the lawyers said, no state expert or evidence has contested Wilson's mental retardation claim. At the time of Wilson's original trial in 1992, Kovarsky said, lawyers did not present evidence of mental retardation because it would have been considered a factor that would have made him more dangerous and more likely to be sentenced to death.
"Marvin Wilson, Texas Man With 61 IQ, To Be Executed In Days," by John Rudolf at Huffington Post.
Marvin Wilson was always slow.
Growing up in extreme poverty in east Texas in the 1960s, he struggled with basic tasks, like tying his shoes, counting money, and mowing the lawn. He fared miserably in school, earning D's and F's in special education classes and failing the 7th grade. The other kids called him "dummy" and "retarded." He was socially promoted to the 10th grade, then dropped out for good.
As an adult, he did manual labor and had a son with a common-law wife. But he remained extraordinarily childlike, according to his younger sister, Kim Armstrong.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw him still sucking his thumb when his son was born," Armstrong said in a 2003 affidavit. "Marvin was in his twenties."
Yet Wilson, now 53, was not slow enough for the Texas and federal courts that authorized his death by lethal injection next week for a 1992 drug-related murder by ruling that he is not covered by a 2002 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded.
Human rights groups, legal experts and a Texas state senator denounced the imminent execution as a clear flouting of the law, while Wilson's attorneys have filed a last-ditch appeal with the Supreme Court, and requested a stay of execution from the Texas Board of Pardons and Gov. Rick Perry.
In their bid to halt the execution, Wilson's allies point to a 2004 psychological exam that measured his IQ at just 61. In Texas, the benchmark for mental retardation is an IQ of about 70 or below. Other states use a threshold IQ of 75 or lower.
Earlier coverage of Marvin Wilson's case begins at the link. Related posts are in the mental retardation index.
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.
More on Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling banning the execution of those with mental retardation, is via Oyez.
Comments