Virginia may exe­cute Alfredo Prieto on October 1 despite con­cerns by dis­abil­i­ty advo­cates that he may be intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. Governor Terry McAuliffe (pic­tured) announced on September 28 that he would not grant Prieto a reprieve. Gov. McAuliffe issued a state­ment say­ing ​“It is the Governor’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure that the laws of the Commonwealth are prop­er­ly car­ried out unless cir­cum­stances mer­it a stay or com­mu­ta­tion of the sen­tence. After exten­sive review and delib­er­a­tion, I have found no such cir­cum­stances, and have thus decid­ed that this exe­cu­tion will move for­ward.” Prieto’s attor­neys say he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled and there­fore inel­i­gi­ble for exe­cu­tion and that an adverse Virginia state court deter­mi­na­tion of that issue employed a sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly invalid strict IQ cut­off score. Later, in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of strict IQ cut­off for rul­ing out intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty with­out con­sid­er­ing oth­er fac­tors vio­lat­ed the Eighth Amendment. The Arc of Virginia, an advo­ca­cy group for peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al and devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties, said, ​“We believe that allow­ing Mr. Prieto’s exe­cu­tion to go for­ward on the evi­dence as it stands is unjus­ti­fied sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly and would endorse a mis­un­der­stand­ing of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties that was refut­ed long ago.” 

Virginia courts ruled that Prieto wait­ed too long after the Supreme Court’s deci­sion to raise the issue of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. However, Prieto also faces the death penal­ty in California, and his lawyers argued that he should be grant­ed a reprieve so he can receive a con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly appro­pri­ate intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty deter­mi­na­tion in appel­late pro­ceed­ings in that state. ​“A deter­mi­na­tion that Mr. Prieto is a per­son with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty made in a California pro­ceed­ing would sup­ply the deter­mi­na­tion Virginia courts are pow­er­less to make; it also would con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pro­hib­it exe­cu­tion,” Prieto’s lawyers said.

(T. Strong, ​“Group asks McAuliffe to put off Prieto’s exe­cu­tion,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 22, 2015; ​“Governor McAuliffe Statement on the Pending Execution of Alfredo Prieto,” Bristol Herald Courier, September 28, 2015.) See Intellectual Disability and U.S. Supreme Court.

Citation Guide