USA - Florida. Supreme Court orders disability hearing for Roger Lee Cherry

Florida Supreme Court orders disability hearing for Roger Lee Cherry. A divided Florida Supreme Court today ordered a lower court to hold a hearing about whether a death row inmate has an intellectual disability that would prevent him from being executed. Justices, in a 5-2 decision, ordered the hearing for Cherry, 65, Black, who was convicted in the June 28, 1986 murders of an elderly couple, Leonard and Esther Wayne, in their home. He was sentenced to death on September 26, 1987. The jury recommended death for Cherry for killing Esther Wayne by a vote of 9 to 3. The same Volusia County jury also recommended Cherry get the death penalty for the killing of Leonard Wayne. That death sentence was later vacated because Leonard Wayne died of a heart attack. The decision was an outgrowth of the May 27, 2014 (see) U.S. Supreme Court ruling that rejected Florida's use of a strict IQ score of 70 in determining whether Death Row inmates were intellectually disabled. Thursday's ruling by the Florida Supreme Court pointed to 2005 expert testimony that indicated Cherry had an IQ of 72 and also met other criteria for being considered intellectually disabled.