Edward Bell, a Jamaican immi­grant con­vict­ed of killing a police offi­cer, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Virginia on February 19 despite a con­clu­sion by a fed­er­al District Court that his lawyers failed to present any mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence at his tri­al. Judge James Jones of the Eastern District of Virginia held that the rep­re­sen­ta­tion Bell received vio­lat­ed con­sti­tu­tion­al stan­dards. However, a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing to explore the ample mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that exist­ed was nev­er grant­ed. According to the clemen­cy peti­tion filed for Bell, Judge Jones said in a col­lo­quy with the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Attorney General, You’ll agree that there was zero mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence pre­sent­ed in this case. The brief tes­ti­mo­ny that was pre­sent­ed, again, as I think the wit­ness­es have agreed, real­ly prob­a­bly hurt Bell more than they helped him. Certainly those wit­ness­es, there was noth­ing elicit­ed from them that did any­thing to shed any light on Bell or his char­ac­ter or motives or back­ground.’ Again speak­ing to the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Attorney General, Judge Jones sum­ma­rized the sit­u­a­tion: defense coun­sel present[ed] no mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence, zero mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence. The pros­e­cu­tor said it, you agree, I agree. The defense coun­sel presented zero.’ ”

In addi­tion to the evi­dence of Bell’s pos­i­tive influ­ence on many peo­ple that might have con­vinced a jury to spare Bell’s life if it had been heard, Bell also has evi­dence of his inno­cence and men­tal retar­da­tion. Much of the evi­dence in the cir­cum­stan­tial case against Bell is in dis­pute, includ­ing a key pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness recant­i­ng his claim that Bell con­fessed to him in jail. While Bell meets Virginia’s statu­to­ry def­i­n­i­tion of men­tal retar­da­tion, with test­ing show­ing an IQ of 68 with seri­ous defi­cien­cies in adap­tive func­tion­ing, no court has ever giv­en Bell a hear­ing to prove his men­tal retar­da­tion. Governor Tim Kaine may stay or com­mute Bell’s death sentence.

(Edward Nathanial Bell Clemency Petition to Governor Tim Kaine, January 23, 2009) (empha­sis added). See Representation, and Mental Retardation.

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