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| High court blocks execution of killer thought to be retarded |
| By AP |
| Published: 11/27/2000 |
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The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the November 16th execution of a convicted killer said to be so mentally retarded he spends his days coloring with crayons and still believes in Santa Claus. The court said it wanted more time to consider a late appeal from Johnny Paul Penry, 44, whose case drew protests from around the world. Penry was condemned for raping and fatally stabbing and beating 22-year-old East Texas housewife Pamela Moseley Carpenter in 1979. He was on parole at the time for a rape. His lawyers described him as having an IQ of 50 to 60 and the reasoning capacity of a 7-year-old. But prosecutors said Penry is ignorant, not retarded. Texas Attorney General John Cornyn said Penry is ''a schemer, a planner and can be purposefully deceptive.'' The European Union, anti-death penalty groups and the American Bar Association, along with advocates for the mentally retarded, had lobbied Texas officials to halt the punishment. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recently denied Penry's request for a 30-day reprieve and a commutation to a lesser sentence. Penry had two competency trials and two murder trials. His second capital murder trial came after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his original death sentence in a landmark ruling. The court said it is not cruel and unusual punishment to execute the mentally retarded, but juries must consider retardation when considering the death penalty. Penry would not be the first mentally disabled inmate executed in Texas. In August, Oliver David Cruz, whose IQ tested as low as 63, received lethal injection for a 1988 murder in San Antonio. |
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