August 15, 2007
Tennessee
Court: Some Mentally Retarded Defendants Can Be Executed
The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that inmates who try
to avoid the death penalty based on a claim of mental retardation can't rely
on tests taken as adults to prove they have the disorder.
In a unanimous decision filed Tuesday, the high court affirmed an appeals
court finding that Danny Strode is eligible for the death penalty in the
beating death of a Bledsoe County store owner during a 2001 robbery because
intelligence tests taken when he was a juvenile didn't show signs of
retardation, although later testing did.
Death penalty experts said the court ruling likely will limit defense
attempts to use mental retardation to fight a capital sentence. It will have
no effect on the state's prohibition on executing inmates who showed signs
of mental retardation before adulthood.
The court's opinion noted that Tennessee law prohibits executing "any
defendant with mental retardation at the time of committing first-degree
murder." The U.S. Supreme Court also has banned executing the mentally
retarded.
But the state Supreme Court referred to a Tennessee statue that requires
"mental retardation must have been manifested during the developmental
period, or by 18 years old."
Strode was 20 years old when police say he beat to death Harvey J. Brown
during an aggravated robbery on Dec. 17, 2001. Before his 18th birthday, IQ
tests showed a range between 75 to 88. State law uses a score of 70 or less
to determine mental retardation.
However, Strode scored a 69 on a test three years after the crime. The state
sought the death penalty, but the trial court concluded that the
developmental period does not necessarily end at age 18.
The high court relied on the statute's legislative history as well as tape
recordings in which lawmakers discussed the legislation to rule in favor of
the state.
"The proof in the record is that although the defendant had his IQ tested at
least four times before reaching the age of 18, he never scored 70 or below
on any of those occasions," wrote Justice Cornelia A. Clark.
The opinion says that the practical effect of a trial court ruling that a
defendant is mentally retarded before he is tried for the crime is that the
state loses the option to pursue the death penalty, even in appeals.
"Based on an exhaustive review of the legislative history of the statute,
this Court's prior understanding of the terms and a survey of other
jurisdictions, we conclude that the language 'during the developmental
period, or by the age of 18' does not include the years past the age of
eighteen," Clark wrote.
Strode's attorney didn't immediately return a call seeking comment
Wednesday.
Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State
Killing, said the ruling caps mental development at age 18.
"The brain continues development into early adulthood," Rector said. "The
development period could in fact go beyond 18 years of age. It seems very
arbitrary to make that decision."
Rector said that many inmates on death row struggle with mental illness and
she understands how claims of mental retardation could be used to avoid the
death penalty.
"I'm sure that the court is trying to limit people from bringing that issue
up as they are attempting to defend themselves," Rector said.
David Raybin, a constitutional scholar and Nashville attorney, said that
most legal definitions of mental retardation require evidence that the
disorder developed during childhood.
"Otherwise a person could flunk every test intentionally," Raybin said. "But
if the proof shows that he was retarded as a juvenile, that is powerful
evidence to corroborate the current claim of mentally retardation."
Raybin pointed out Strode could still claim mental disability before a jury,
but the ruling allows the state to keep the option of the death penalty in
his case.
In 1990, the Tennessee General Assembly prohibited the execution of any
defendant with mental retardation at the time of committing first-degree
murder.
The state Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that executing the mentally retarded
is impermissibly cruel punishment under the state and federal constitutions.
---
Source : The Associated Press
http://www.wsmv.com/news/13901878/detai ... h&psp=news
