If James Lee Clark is exe­cut­ed in Texas on April 11, he will be the 12th Texas inmate exe­cut­ed out of 13 exe­cu­tions nation­wide in 2007. According to some psy­cho­log­i­cal tests, Clark has an IQ of 68 or low­er, which is one of the com­mon cri­te­ria for men­tal retar­da­tion. Clark’s defense team has asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Texas Governor Rick Perry to halt the exe­cu­tion because of the like­li­hood that Clark suf­fers from mental retardation. 

Clark is on death row for the 1993 mur­der of 17-year-old Shari Crews. A co-defen­dant in a relat­ed mur­der was giv­en a 20-year sen­tence. During psy­cho­log­i­cal test­ing admin­is­tered by Dr. Denis Keyes in 2003, Clark’s men­tal capac­i­ties were found to be at or below rough­ly 92% of the U.S. pop­u­la­tion. His adap­tive skills lev­el placed him well below 1% of the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion. Dr. Keyes said Clark’s abil­i­ty to con­form his behav­ior to that expect­ed of his same age group is ​“vir­tu­al­ly nonex­is­tent.” Keyes observed that, ​“Individuals with men­tal retar­da­tion typ­i­cal­ly have severe deficits in judg­ment poten­tial, and are sim­ply unable to under­stand the con­se­quences of their behav­iors. People with men­tal retar­da­tion have sev­er­al char­ac­ter­is­tics; among these are defec­tive intel­lec­tu­al capac­i­ty, short­er atten­tion spans, poor mem­o­ry, poor plan­ning abil­i­ty, lack of abil­i­ty to appre­ci­ate the con­se­quences of their actions, severe learn­ing prob­lems, marked deficits in adap­tive skill areas, and lim­it­ed abil­i­ty to learn from pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence. James’s back­ground con­firms prob­lems with vir­tu­al­ly every one of the above char­ac­ter­is­tics.” Keyes con­clud­ed that Clark should be exclud­ed from exe­cu­tion under both the Texas Mentally Retarded Persons Act and the United States Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia. (An ear­li­er test had put Clark’s IQ at 74, also close to the stan­dard for men­tal retar­da­tion.)
(See Psychological Report filed by Dr. Denis W. Keyes, July 18, 2003, and Clark’s Clemency Petition, March 21, 2007).

Clark’s exe­cu­tion would be the 13th in the U.S. this year, with all but one occur­ring in Texas. A num­ber of Texas death penal­ty cas­es have come under scruti­ny this year by the courts. In the week fol­low­ing Clark’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Panetti v. Quarterman, a Texas case that will deter­mine whether mere aware­ness of one’s crime can be equat­ed with men­tal com­pe­tence, or whether the per­son also needs to ratio­nal­ly under­stand what is tak­ing place. The case will deter­mine whether Scott Panetti, who was allowed to defend him­self in his Texas tri­al despite his schiz­o­phre­nia and 14 stints in men­tal hos­pi­tals, can be exe­cut­ed. See Mental Retardation and Upcoming Executions.

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