16 apr 2003

 US-Texas Execution reprieve

By MICHAEL GRACZYK

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A condemned killer won a reprieve about two hours before his  scheduled execution for the fatal shooting of a Houston businessman during a  botched burglary 12 years ago.

The execution of Kenneth Wayne Morris, 32, a ninth-grade dropout with a  history of theft and burglary, was stopped by order of a federal appeals  court, based on a U.S.

Supreme Court ruling last year that barred execution of mentally retarded  people.

In a last-ditch appeal, Morris' lawyers argued their client was retarded,  even though he had never been given an IQ test.

In its order, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans gave  Morris' lawyers permission to file additional legal actions in a lower  federal court.

  Morris was identified as the gunman in a three-man gang that broke into  the home of a 63-year-old man because they thought he had a gun collection.

  James Moody Adams, however, had no weapons and was shot four times after  he surrendered the money in his wallet.

His terrified wife hid in a closet behind some clothes.

Marcene Adams and her two sons were scheduled to watch Morris die Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the court said the fact that Morris had never been  tested was enough to justify a stay of execution.

<It is difficult to make informed judgments without the development of the facts in some form of hearing,> Judge Patrick Higginbotham said.

<I never thought I was retarded,> Morris said last week on death row. <People have said I was. When I went to court, they said I was mentally slow.> Roe Wilson, who handles capital appeals for the Harris County district attorney's office, said she was surprised by the reprieve <based on lack of evidence presented that he was mentally retarded.> <Basically, the court is just giving them more time to try to look for something,> she said.

Aplazan la ejecucion de un retrasado mental en Texas

Huntsville, 15 abr - Un tribunal federal de apelaciones del estado de  Luisiana aplazo hoy a ultimo minuto la ejecucion en Texas de un hombre cuyos  abogados argumentaron que no debia ser sometido a la pena de muerte por ser  retrasado mental.

   Kenneth Wayne Morris habia sido condenado a muerte con una inyeccion  letal por el asesinato de un hombre de 63 anos durante un asalto en 1991.

  Sin embargo, el tribunal de apelaciones de Nueva Orleans determino dos  horas antes de la ejecucion que se debian revisar las pruebas que senalan  que es un retrasado mental.

  Fuentes judiciales dijeron que el aplazamiento se mantendra hasta que  una corte de menor instancia emita un dictamen sobre la salud mental del  condenado.

   El ano pasado el Tribunal Supremo de EEUU prohibio la ejecucion de  retrasados mentales, pero dejo en manos de los tribunales locales la  decision de establecer quien es retrasado mental.

  Los abogados de Morris, de 32 anos, indicaron que, pese a que nunca se  realizaron pruebas sobre su coeficiente intelectual, el condenado siempre  tuvo problemas mentales y ni siquiera logro aprender a leer o escribir.

  Sin embargo, los fiscales afirmaron durante el juicio que los psicologos  que lo examinaron y que presentaron sus estudios durante los alegatos  estaban convencidos de que Morris era una persona de nivel intelectual  normal.