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| Courts consider dozens of Texas mental retardation claims |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/23/2004 |
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In the year and a half since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled mentally retarded inmates cannot be executed, state and federal appeals courts have delayed or sent back to trial 41 Texas death row cases to decide whether the killer was mentally retarded, says a group that tracks the claims. Critics of the Texas' capital punishment system say the numbers show death row has dozens of people who may be ineligible for execution. Death penalty supporters wonder if inmates are trying to delay justice by jamming the courts with new claims of mental retardation. Both sides agree the Legislature should change state law to decide mental retardation earlier to reduce the burden on appeals courts. When the Supreme Court ruled, it left it up to the states to determine mental retardation, and the Texas criminal justice system has been groping in the dark ever since. "Texas has no system in place, and what you have is chaos," said Steve Hall, director of StandDown Texas, which opposes the death penalty. Dianne Clements, president of the victims rights group Justice For All, said it's difficult not having a clear state definition of mental retardation. "These defendants are taking every opportunity they can to remove themselves from death row. If a defendant raises the claim, we provide them with super due process because of the law," Clements said. Texas has about 450 prisoners on death row. |
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