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| Federal appeals court delays execution of Missouri inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/08/2001 |
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The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday halted the execution of Antonio Richardson hours before he was scheduled to die by injection. The court stayed the case pending the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing involving a convicted killer from Texas named John Paul Penry. Like Penry, Richardson is borderline mentally retarded. The Supreme Court said it would use the Penry case to clarify how much opportunity jurors in death penalty cases must have to consider a defendant's mental capacity. A hearing in the Penry case is March 22, but it is not clear when the court will make a decision. Richardson had been scheduled to be put to death at 12:01 a.m. today at the Potosi Correctional Center for his role in the 1991 deaths of sisters Robin and Julie Kerry. The young women were pushed off an abandoned Mississippi River bridge in north St. Louis. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon immediately appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Richardson was 16 at the time of the killings. In a clemency request to Gov. Bob Holden, defense attorney Gino Battisti cited Richardson's age, impaired mental capacity and organic brain damage. Holden had not ruled on the clemency request when the 8th Circuit's ruling was handed down. Several groups had expressed opposition to the execution, including Amnesty International, the Children and Family Justice Center, the Association for Retarded Citizens, Human Rights Watch and the European Union. 'The stay is appropriate in that this gentleman, by any testing, has been known to be mentally retarded,' said Larry Weber, executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference. 'This is a gentleman who is very susceptible to being led around. 'He was only 16 years old when he committed this crime. His culpability seems to be a great deal less than some of the other defendants involved.' Battisti said 13 states prohibit the execution of mentally retarded persons. Missouri lawmakers are considering such a ban. Nixon said the crime deserved the death penalty. 'This is one in which the guilt is not questioned and the violence is almost unspeakable,' he said. |
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