US Supreme Court overturns retarded man’s death sentence

Above: Johnny Paul Penry in 1979.


June 4, 2001: the Supreme Court Justices, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that the jury was given confusing instructions and ordered a new sentencing hearing for Johnny Paul Penry, on death row for the 1979 rape and murder of Pamela Moseley Carpenter.
Penry’s conviction was not overturned, but his lawyers say he is mentally retarded with an IQ of between 51 and 63 and the mental capacity of a seven-year-old.
Penry confessed to killing Carpenter, and was convicted and sentenced to die in 1980. The Supreme Court accepted his first appeal in 1989, and used his case to establish two related tenets of capital punishment practice.
In Penry v. Lynaugh, the Supreme Court ruled that executing persons with mental retardation was not a violation of the Eight Amendment. However juries must understand how to weigh retardation as a mitigating factor.
A second jury was asked to consider three factors during sentencing:
-Was the murder committed deliberately?
-Was it an unreasonable response to provocation?
-Was Penry a continuing threat to society?
The jury again sentenced Penry to death, but on Monday the six Supreme Court Justices, led by Sandra Day O’Connor, found that the jury instructions put jurors in the position of changing “one or more truthful ‘yes’ answers to an untruthful ‘no’ answer in order to avoid a death sentence for Penry.”
Jurors who wanted to answer one of the questions falsely because of the mitigating factors would have had to violate their oath to render “a true verdict,” O’Connor wrote.
The Supreme Court did not decide whether executing people with mental retardation violates the Eight Amendment. The 1989 ruling stated that “evolving standards of decency” could change the court’s view.
The issue regarding whether executing the mentally retarded violates the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment will be taken up by the Supreme Court in autumn when it hears North Carolina death row inmate Ernest Carver’s case.
At present 14 states forbid the execution of the mentally retarded.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center 35 offenders with mental retardation have been executed since the United States re-instated the death penalty in 1976.