"High court will not hear killer's intellectual disability claim," is by Allan Turner in the Houston Chronicle.
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider Houston convicted killer Robert James Campbell's claim that he is intellectually disabled and, therefore, ineligible for execution.
His lawyer on Tuesday said the high court's decision was "entirely expected" and does not affect a second so-called Atkins claim to be heard in a Houston federal court.
An earlier story in the Houston Chronicle, based, in part, on reportage by The Associated Press, erroneously reported that the Supreme Court had declined to consider an appeal seeking information concerning the source of the drug used in executions. That appeal remains active.
And:
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Campbell's May execution to allow his legal team time to present evidence concerning intellectually disability. Attorney Rob Owen argued that his client's low score on an IQ test and his inability to function well in daily life indicated he was intellectually disabled. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Harris County District Attorney's Office had given Campbell's earlier lawyers incomplete or inaccurate information.
The Guardian reports, "Texas execution appeal rejected by US supreme court," by Tom Dart.
Robert Campbell was to become the first prisoner put to death in the US since the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma in April, but a federal appeals court issued a stay only around three hours before he was due to be injected with a lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital.
Campbell was sentenced to die for the 1991 rape and murder of Alexandra Rendon, a 20-year-old Houston bank teller.
The federal court decided that Campbell’s claim that he is intellectually disabled – and so not eligible to be executed –deserves more examination after earlier evidence about his IQ test scores appeared to have been incorrect, incomplete or withheld by officials. His lawyers also argued his trial counsel had been inadequate.
On Monday, the US supreme court opted not to review this aspect of the case, a decision that Rob Owen, Campbell’s lawyer, said was “entirely expected and unsurprising” due to ongoing litigation elsewhere. An earlier wire report inaccurately said the ruling was related to Texas’s refusal to disclose information about its execution drugs.
However, that appeal is still pending, and a decision could be announced within a week – though the supreme court is yet to halt an execution based on a state’s secrecy over its drug supply.
Earlier coverage of Robert Campbell's case begins at the link.
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