Supreme Court to grapple with mental disability, death penalty

Washington — The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider taking another step toward limiting the use of the death penalty, this time by trying to clarify the legal standard for who is ineligible for the ultimate punishment because of mental disability.

At issue is whether states such as Florida may disqualify anyone who scores above 70 on an I.Q. test. A score below 70 generally indicates mental disability.

The justices agreed to hear the case of Freddie Hall, a Florida death row inmate who killed two people in 1978, but who was described as mentally disabled when he was a child and was deemed to be mentally retarded by the judge who sentenced him to die.

But three years ago, Florida prosecutors said Hall had scored a 71 on a Weschler Adult Intelligence Test and, therefore, could be executed for his crimes. At other times he scored 73 and 80.

His case figures to be the most important death penalty dispute decided during this court term. During the past decade, the court has limited the use of the death penalty by excluding those who were under age 18 at the time of the crime or who suffered from a significant mental disability.

But until now, the court has not intervened to clarify who qualifies for an exemption based on a mental disability. “It’s been 11 years, and this issue is still not settled,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

He was referring to a 2002 case, Atkins v. Virginia, in which the court held that it was cruel and unusual punishment to impose a death sentence on a murderer who had a mental disability. While these defendants can be sentenced to life in prison, they are not among the small percentage of murderers who deserve to die, said Justice John Paul Stevens.

His opinion spoke for a 6-3 majority, and it left states some leeway to decide who should be deemed as mentally disabled. One key question is whether the facts of the crime should figure in the decision.

Hall was convicted, along with another man, of abducting a 21-year old woman from a grocery store parking lot in Leesburg, Fla. She was taken to a wooded area, where she was raped and killed.

The trial judge acknowledged the evidence suggesting Hall had a mental disability, but he said the facts of his crime outweighed it.

“Nothing of which the experts testified could explain how a psychotic, mentally retarded, brain- damaged, learning- disabled, speechimpaired person would formulate a plan whereby a car was stolen and a convenience store was robbed,” the judge said.