UPDATE: (1/​27). Ladd was denied a stay by the TX Ct. of Crim. Appeals. Robert Ladd is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on January 29, despite hav­ing an IQ of 67, an indi­ca­tion of intel­lec­tial dis­abil­i­ty ren­der­ing him inel­i­gi­ble for exe­cu­tion. Howver, Texas courts reject­ed Ladd’s pre­vi­ous appeal because the state has a unique way of eval­u­at­ing intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. Courts in Texas often con­sid­er what is called the ​“Briseño fac­tors,” a set of cri­te­ria cre­at­ed by a judge that dif­fers from the usu­al psy­cho­log­i­cal deter­mi­na­tion of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abilty. In par­tic­u­lar, Texas may allow an exe­cu­tion if the defen­dant exhib­it­ed fore­thought or advance plan­ning in com­mit­ing the crime. Generally, intel­le­cu­tal dis­abil­i­ty is deter­mined inde­pen­dent of the facts sur­round­ing the crime. Texas is the only state that con­sid­ers such fac­tors, despite the lack of sci­en­tif­ic basis, in deter­min­ing whether a defen­dant should be spared. Ladd’s attor­neys are chal­leng­ing the use of these fac­tors, say­ing they vio­late the Supreme Court’s recent deci­sion in Hall v. Florida, which held that Florida’s unusu­al stan­dards for estab­lish­ing intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty were out­side the coun­try’s stan­dards of decency.

(R. Roy, ​“ACLU attor­ney files paper­work to halt exe­cu­tion of ETX man con­vict­ed of mur­der,” KETX, January 22, 2015). See Intellectual Disability.

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