Texas Execution-Reprieve. 
Court to examine mental retardation issue.

 22 gen 2003

 HOUSTON - A convicted killer set to die this week won a reprieve Tuesday from a Texas appeals court because state prison records show he may be mentally retarded. Tests administered to the inmate, Elkie Taylor, while imprisoned for an earlier crime showed he had an IQ of 63, according to Taylor's attorney.

A second test yielded an IQ score of 57, said the lawyer, James Rasmussen. The stay granted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will allow time for a hearing on whether Taylor is mentally retarded. Taylor, 41, was to be put to death Thursday for the 1993 strangling of 65-year-old Otis Flake during a burglary in Fort Worth. An accomplice, Darryl Birdow, was sentenced to life in prison.

Taylor told police he bound and gagged Flake but insisted Birdow strangled him. Terri Moore, who prosecuted Taylor in 1994, said Tuesday that evidence of possible mental retardation was presented during Taylor's trial but jurors dismissed it.