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| Prosecutors Fear Flood of Appeals After Supreme Court Ruling |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/01/2002 |
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The Supreme Court's ban on executing mentally retarded killers has prosecutors across the country bracing for a flood of appeals from inmates hoping to avoid the death chamber. 'All of a sudden everybody on death row is going to become retarded,' said Mississippi Assistant Attorney General Marvin 'Sonny' White, who prosecutes death row appeals for the state. The high court ruled 6-3 on June 20 that executing mentally retarded murderers is unconstitutionally cruel. The decision - the biggest shift in the court's stance on capital punishment in a quarter-century - offers the possibility of reprieve to scores of inmates. Louisiana Attorney General Richard Leyoub said the ruling creates a dilemma because the court left it to the states to legally define mental retardation. Those definitions will likely be tested in court, he said. As states scrambled to figure out how the ruling would affect them, death penalty opponents lauded the opinion and victims' advocates criticized it. 'It's a Pandora's box, and it's deep and wide,' said Dianne Clements, president of Justice For All, a Texas victims' rights group. Her son was murdered in 1991. 'It has opened the door to years of litigation,' Clements said. 'And there are plenty of people who are going to walk through it.' Texas is one of 20 states that theoretically allow execution of retarded people. Steve Hall, director of the anti-death penalty group StandDown Texas, rejected the argument that the ruling will allow murderers to fake retardation to escape the death penalty. He said defense attorneys must use medical and school records and other evidence including IQ tests to prove retardation. In Texas and Utah, mental retardation is among several factors jurors can consider before deciding whether to impose a death sentence. |
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