US Defendants with an intellectual disability executed since 1976- R.I.P.

[thegreatdoubter]

In memory of prisoners in the USA (who had an intellectual disability of some type) executed since 1976 and before Atkins v. Virginia (2002) which prohibited the execution of people with intellectual disabilities in the USA under the Eighth Amendment.

This information is taken from the Death Penalty Information Center and also Murderpedia (to provide evidence of their cognitive impairment).

1. Arthur Frederick Goode, 30, executed by electric chair in Florida on 5 April,1984. He had an IQ ranging from 60-63 and apparently still wore his hair in Little Lord Fauntleroy curls at the age of 22.

2. Ivon Ray Stanley, 28, executed by electric chair in Georgia on 12 July,1984. He had an IQ of 62 and was placed in special education classes in childhood.

3. James Dupree Henry, 34, executed by electric chair in Florida on 20 September,1984. His IQ was in the low 70s, according to a New York University doctor who assessed him as 'an intellectually-limited, brain-damaged individual.'

4.Morris Odell Mason, 31, executed by electric chair in Virginia on 25 June, 1985. He had an IQ of 62-66 and his lawyers argued that his intellectual disability meant he could not properly comprehend his crime.

5.James Terry Roach, 25, executed by electric chair in South Carolina on 10 January,1986. He had an IQ of 75-80,was 17 at the time of the murder, and probably suffered from Huntington's Chorea.

6.Jerome Bowden, 33, executed by electric chair in Georgia on 25 June,1986. He had an IQ of 59-65, was functionally illiterate, and could not functionally count either. Georgia became the first US state to ban the execution of defendants with intellectual disabilities as a result.

7.Willie Celestine, 30, executed by electric chair in Louisiana on 20 July,1987. He had a borderline intellectual disability with an IQ of 68-81.

8. John E. Brogdon, 25, executed by electric chair in Louisiana on 30 July,1987. He had a mild intellectual disability and was a child abuse victim.

9.Horace Franklin Dunkins, Jr., 28, executed by electric chair in Alabama on 14 July, 1989. He had an IQ of 65-69, but this fact was not raised until after he had been convicted.

10. Alton Waye, 34, executed by electric chair in Virginia on 30 August, 1989. He bordered on intellectual disability, was brain damaged, and evidence which may have cast doubts about his guilt was not introduced at his trial.

11.Johnny Ray Anderson, 30, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 17 May,1990. He had an IQ of 70 which was aggravated by long-term glue sniffing since his chidlhood.

12. Dalton Prejean, 30, executed by electric chair in Louisiana on 18 May,1990. He had an IQ of 71-76, had been released from a mental institution prior to the murder he committed, was 17 at time of said murder and had endured significant abuse as a child.

13. Ricky Ray Rector, 42, executed by lethal injection in Arkansas on 24 January, 1992. He had gained an intellectual disability as a result of a self-inflicted lobotomy (a suicide attempt) and famously claimed he was 'saving his pecan pie for later' on the day of his execution.

14. Johnny Frank Garrett, 28, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 11 February,1992. He was brain-damaged, mentally ill, 17 at the time of the murder, and there is significant evidence meaning that he likely did not commit the murder he was executed for.

15. Billy Wayne White, 35, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 23 April.1992. He had an IQ of 66-69 and many observers at his trial questioned Mr. White's mental competence.

16. Nollie Lee Martin, 43, executed by electric chair in Florida on 23 May,1992. He had both intellectual disabilities and a mental illness.

17. Ricky Lee Grubbs, 33, executed by lethal injection in Missouri on 21 October,1992. He bordered on intellectual disability with an IQ of 72.

18. Cornelius Singleton, 36, executed by electric chair in Alabama on 20 November,1992. He had an IQ of 55-65, was illiterate, had a mental age of 7, and was coerced into signing confessions he could not read.

19. Robert Wayne Sawyer, 42, executed by lethal injection in Louisiana on 5 March, 1993. He had an IQ of 65-68 and organic brain damage.

20. William Henry Hance, 43, executed by electric chair in Georgia on 31 March,1994. He had both intellectual impairments and mental illness, and his trial was tainted by racial prejudice, according to news reports.

21. Mario Marquez, 36, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 17 January,1995. He had an IQ of 65, functioned like a child, and was executed even though those factors were acknowledged by the courts.

22. Willie Clisby, Jr., 47, executed by electric chair in Alabama on 28 April, 1995. He was mentally ill and had mild intellectual disabilities; a federal judge once decided his death sentence was unconstitutional because he lacked the resources to prove his mental illness; this ruling was overturned.

23. Varnell Weeks, 43, executed by electric chair in Alabama on 12 May,1995. He had a mild intellectual disability and was severely mentally ill, believing he would be reincarnated as a giant tortoise after his execution.

24. Girvies Davis, 37, executed by lethal injection in Illiinois on 17 May,1995. He was illiterate, brain damaged, coerced into confessing, and therefore probably did not commit the crime he was executed for.

25. Sylvester Adams, 39, executed by lethal injection in South Carolina on 18 August,1995. He had an IQ of 65-69, and was mentally ill; this mitigating evidence was not presented at his trial.

26. Barry Lee Fairchild, 41, executed by lethal injection in Arkansas on 31 August,1995. He had an IQ of 60-63, and siginificant doubts persist about his guilt, enough for the US District Court for East Arkansas in 1993. to order that Mr. Fairchild's sentence be commuted. This ruling was overturned by the US 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1994.

27.Walter Milton Correll, 34, executed by lethal injection in Virginia on 4 January,1996. He had an IQ of 68 and his two relatively intelligent accomplices blamed the murder on him to receive lighter sentences.

28. Luis Mata, 45, executed by lethal injection in Arizona on 22 August, 1996. He had an IQ of 68-70 and suffered from hydrocephalus.

29.John Earl Bush, 38, executed by electric chair in Florida on 21 October,1996. He bordered on intellectual disability and had organic brain damage.

30.Frank Middleton,Jr., 33, executed by lethal injection in South Carolina on 22 November,1996. He had an IQ of 68 or 69.

31. Terry Washington, 33, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 6 May,1997. He had an IQ of 58-69, foetal alcohol syndrome, and a mental age of 7. His legal defence team never raised these issues at trial.

32. Tony Mackall, 33, executed by lethal injection in Virginia on 20 February, 1998. He had an IQ of 64 and suffered a severe head injury as a child.

33. Reginald Powell, 29, executed by lethal injection in Missouri on 25 February, 1998. He had an IQ of 65 and was severely impaired by an Auditory Selective Attention Disorder, according to mental impairment testing conducted on him.

34. Robert Carter, 34, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 18 May,1998. He had a mild intellectual disability, was 17 at the time of the murder, and had suffered significant abuse as a child.

35. Dwayne Allen Wright, 26, executed by lethal injection in Virginia on 24 October, 1998. He bordered on intellectual disbaility, was 17 at the time of the murder, and had spent some of his childhood in a mental institution.

36. Dobie Gillis Williams*, 37, executed by lethal injection in Louisiana on 8 January,1999. He had an IQ of 65 and it has been asserted by Sister Helen Prejean and her supporters that he was wrongly executed.

37. Robert Dale Yeatts, 38, executed by lethal injection in Virginia on 29 April,1999. He had an IQ of 70 and was executed primarily on a finding on 'future dangerousness'.

38. Norman Lee Newsted, 45, executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on 8 July, 1999. He had both intellectual disabilities and mental illness, a personality disorder, and also the jury was improperly instructed about a lesser charge of 'manslaughter in the heat of passion'.

39. Raymond James Jones, 39, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 1 September, 1999. He had an intellectual disability and only completed eight years of schooling.

40.David R. Leisure, 49, executed by lethal injection in Missouri on 1 September, 1999. He bordered on intellectual disability with an IQ of 74 and his legal defence team considered him therefore unfit for execution.

41. Charles Anthony Boyd, 39, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 5 August, 1999. He had an IQ of 64 but was unsuccessful in pressing his claim to the courts.

42.Willie G. Sullivan, 27, executed by lethal injection in Delaware on 24 September, 1999. He had an IQ of 58-70 and foetal alcohol syndrome.

43. David Oliver Cruz, 33, executed by lethal injection in Texas on 9 August,2000. His IQ tested between 64-76 but was still ruled competent to be executed.

44. Wanda Jean Allen, 41, executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on 11 January 2001. She bordered on intellectual disability with an IQ of 69; this was never brought up at her trial.

45. Robert William Clayton, 40, executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on 1 March, 2001. He had an IQ of 68 and had tried to prove his innocence, but DNA testing confirmed his guilt.

*Dobie Williams' name does not appear on the DPIC's list of US defendants executed despite evidence of intellectual impairment.

May the above rest in peace.

[heidio]

Since I do not generally quote the DPIC as a reputable link in my posts on any forum, would you terribly mind providing me a link, so I may check sources?

[RainyCola]

Originally Posted by heidio

Since I do not generally quote the DPIC as a reputable link in my posts on any forum, would you terribly mind providing me a link, so I may check sources?

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/list...-united-states

[thegreatdoubter]

Originally Posted by heidio

Since I do not generally quote the DPIC as a reputable link in my posts on any forum, would you terribly mind providing me a link, so I may check sources?

Heidio, the reason I could not put the URL web link in is because Prison Talk Online regulations do not permit any poster to insert any website links until they have made at least 25 posts in these forums.

Your own forum, which I used to be a member of,had no such rule in place.

[mammastalkin]

Thank you for doing this research for us! One name to add though. Milton Mathis executed by TX 21 Jun 2011. His IQ was measured at 70 by the TDCJ's intake test!

[thegreatdoubter]

Originally Posted by mammastalkin

Thank you for doing this research for us! One name to add though. Milton Mathis executed by TX 21 Jun 2011. His IQ was measured at 70 by the TDCJ's intake test!

Indeed,and at some point below this level,even though all states have to abide by Atkins v. Virginia; claims of intellectual disability by defendants are difficult to press forward in appellate courts. On a related note about mental capacity, there have been serious concerns about the mental health (which can also make a person unfit to be executed by US standards) of several defendants executed in the US in recent years, particularly (in my opinion) in Texas and Ohio.