Court grants reprieve for killer claiming mental retardation

A white supremacist scheduled to be executed next week for the murder of a Houston man was granted a reprieve today when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered new hearings to determine whether he is mentally retarded.

 The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing mentally retarded inmates is unconstitutional.

 The Texas appeals court ordered Brian Edward Davis' case returned to Harris County for hearings on whether he is retarded. Davis was scheduled to die by lethal injection next Tuesday.

 Davis, 33, a parolee with a history of violence that began in grade school, was condemned for fatally stabbing Michael Foster and inscribing the victim's body with a swastika and initials of a skinhead group in 1991.

 Although Davis did not offer a mental retardation defense during his trial, he won an 11th-hour reprieve from the Supreme Court in May. But the court refused to hear the appeal without explanation, and he was sent back to death row.

 Davis' attorney, Greg Wiercioch of Austin, took the same claim to the Texas court.

 "I think the (state court) did the right thing and is taking these mental retardation claims seriously," Wiercioch said.

 As defined by the American Association of Mental Retardation, the mental retardation has three factors: below average intellectual functioning, usually an IQ of 70 or below; poor adaptive skills, such as inability to hold a job or communicate with others; and the onset of symptoms before age 18.

 Wiercioch said Davis was tested with an IQ of 74 as a teenager and can prove a pattern of poor adaptive skills. He says the IQ test's plus-or-minus range of 5 points could put Davis below the threshold.

 When charged with murder, he was on parole from a marijuana conviction. It was during that prison sentence where Davis said he turned to white gang members and adopted their beliefs to protect himself from beatings by black inmates.

 On Davis' chest is a tattoo of a swastika outlined with flames and lightning bolts. Another swastika is on one arm and an obscene motorcycle logo is tattooed on the other arm.

 "Swastikas sell fear," he said recently from death row. "I don't believe in hating just for skin color. Any hatred I have was beat into me."

 Davis said he did not kill Foster, 31, a mildly mentally retarded man who met Davis and Davis' wife at a Houston bar.

 "I'm innocent of this crime," Davis said. "I was wrong to confess ... but I was trying to save my wife."