Texas leg­is­la­tors have failed to pass laws that could bring the state into com­pli­ance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia that bans the exe­cu­tion of those with men­tal retar­da­tion. Nearly a year after the Court’s rul­ing in Atkins, Texas offi­cials have no idea how many of the 449 death row inmates have the dis­abil­i­ty, and no safe­guards to ensure that those affect­ed by the rul­ing are not put to death. Most of the leg­isla­tive efforts have focused on iden­ti­fy­ing defen­dants with men­tal retar­da­tion before their tri­als, not find­ing those who are already on death row. Houston defense attor­ney Dick Burr stat­ed, ​“People fac­ing the death penal­ty here are depen­dent on the good will of their lawyers. It means that some peo­ple are lucky and oth­ers are not.” The state’s test­ing has revealed that 7% of Texas con­victs have IQs below 70, the com­mon­ly accept­ed bench­mark for men­tal retar­da­tion. Thus, there could be as many as 31 con­demned inmates who qual­i­fy to have their death sen­tences lift­ed. Texas Governor Rick Perry has stat­ed that he believes that no one on death row has men­tal retar­da­tion, and his belief is echoed by Houston assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney Roe Wilson, who han­dles most of Harris County’s cap­i­tal appeals. ​“I don’t know of any who are men­tal­ly retard­ed,” Wilson said. 

(Houston Chronicle, May 11, 2003) See Mental Retardation.

Citation Guide