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| Stay of Execution Granted for Ala. Inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/29/2003 |
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A federal appeals court halted the scheduled Thursday execution of Alabama death row inmate Glenn W. Holladay, giving the convicted killer another chance to prove he is mentally retarded. Holladay, sentenced to die for a 1986 triple murder in Gadsden, appealed his sentence based on a June 2002 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that said executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutionally cruel. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling released Monday, said IQ tests and statements during Holladay's trial indicate that he might be retarded and that he should have a chance to prove so. The decision to block the execution gives Holladay permission to ask a U.S. district judge to consider whether he is retarded. 'It's a tremendously significant victory,' Holladay's attorney, Bryan A. Stevenson, said Tuesday. 'If the court finds that Mr. Holladay is mentally retarded, as virtually every professional has in the past, then he cannot be executed, period.' Prosecutors had argued that Holladay is not retarded and that he waited too long to revive the mental retardation issue. Clay Crenshaw, who works on death penalty cases for the attorney general's office, repeated that stance Tuesday. 'What happened (Monday) doesn't change our procedural defense or our belief the evidence demonstrates that Holladay is not mentally retarded,' Crenshaw said. Holladay was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday for the shooting deaths of ex-wife Rebecca Ledbetter Holladay, her boyfriend David Robinson, and Larry Thomas Jr., a 16-year-old friend of Mrs. Holladay's son. Holladay also received a stay in 2001 while the Supreme Court considered the case that led to last year's ruling against executing the mentally retarded. Stevenson said there is ample evidence to show Holladay is retarded. Holladay scored 65 on his last IQ test, but has had scores as low as 49 in testing dating back to 1958. A score below 70 is considered mentally retarded. 'The most reliable evidence of mental retardation is what exists before age 18,' Stevenson said. 'He was tested three times as a youth, and each time showed he was someone with mental retardation.' Prosecutors claim Holladay also has scored above 70 on the IQ test. |
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