In a 4 – 3 vote, the Arkansas Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed that Frank Williams’ death sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life with­out parole. The Board had received peti­tions for clemen­cy from 13 state, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions and devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties experts which con­clud­ed that Mr. Williams suf­fers from men­tal retar­da­tion based on his sub-aver­age adap­tive func­tion­ing and the diag­no­sis of psy­cho­log­i­cal experts. The requests for clemen­cy empha­sized the fact that exe­cut­ing a men­tal­ly retard­ed per­son is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al based on both Arkansas’ 1993 statu­to­ry ban and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia. Courts have not reviewed the evi­dence of Mr. Williams’ men­tal retar­da­tion because nei­ther his tri­al lawyer nor his post-con­vic­tion appeals attor­ney raised this issue. The appel­late courts have con­clud­ed that Williams is now barred from prov­ing his men­tal retar­da­tion because it was not pre­sent­ed ear­li­er.

The rec­om­men­da­tion for clemen­cy now goes to Governor Mike Beebe, who will decide whether to accept the Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion or allow the exe­cu­tion to go for­ward as sched­uled on September 9th.
(R. Moritz, ​“Parole board rec­om­mends clemen­cy for con­demned killer,” Arkansas News Bureau, August 6, 2008). See Mental Retardation and Clemency. (This is a revised ver­sion of an item posted earlier.)

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