|
WASHINGTON
- All'ultimo minuto, in uno dei casi pi� controversi degli ultimi
anni, la Corte Suprema ha impedito che venisse messo a morte
Antonio Richardson, un ritardato mentale che uccise quando aveva
16 anni. La notte scorsa, il caso Richardson si � risolto sul
filo del rasoio. L'uomo, condannato per aver violentato ed ucciso
due sorelle nel 1991 insieme ad altri due complici, aveva ricevuto
una sospensione dell'esecuzione da una corte d'appello di St.
Louis (Missouri). Ma lo stato aveva fatto ricorso alla Corte
suprema federale, che aveva ridato via libera al boia, salvo poi
emettere poco pi� tardi un suo ordine di sospensione, quando
Richardson aveva gi� consumato l'ultimo pasto. La Corte ora
esaminer� l'intera vicenda, per decidere se uno stato pu�
mettere a morte un uomo che era minorenne all'epoca del delitto, e
il cui quoziente intellettivo � poco pi� sviluppato di quello di
un bambino. Agli Usa era giunto anche l'appello dell'Ue, che
chiedeva misure contro l'esecuzione di minori e handicappati. Per
salvare la vita a Richardson si era mossa persino la madre delle
sue vittime, Ginny Kerry, che aveva chiesto clemenza �per dovere
cristiano�. Tredici stati Usa vietano di uccidere i minorati
mentali, ma dal 1976, negli Usa, sono stati 36 i minorati messi a
morte
- IN AMERICA By BOB HERBERT
Antonio
Richardson had already eaten what was supposed to have been his
last meal. Now he was waiting, frightened, in the prison cell with
the gray walls and the telephone at the Potosi CorrectionalCenter
in Potosi, Mo., about 65 miles southwest of St. Louis.The state of
Missouri has a death penalty but no death row. Executions are
carried out in the same prison wing as the infirmaryat Potosi. In
the last few hours of their lives the condemnedprisoners are kept
in a cell near the infirmary and are allowed to make and receive
as many phone calls as they like.Time had nearly run out for
Antonio Richardson when word came about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday that
the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered a temporary stay of his
execution. Mr. Richardson had been scheduled to be killed by
lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.Mr. Richardson, who is
brain-damaged and mentally retarded, was part of a group of two
young men and two teenage boys who raped and murdered two young
women in St. Louis in 1991. He was 16 at the time of the
attack.Only the United States, Congo and Iran continue to execute
people for offenses committed when they were juveniles. But that
is not the issue on which Mr. Richardson's case - and life -
hinges. His lawyer, Gino Battisti, is trying to convince the
courts that it is a cruel and unusual punishment, and therefore a
violation of the Eighth Amendment, to execute someone who is
mentally retarded.What passes for justice in some of these cases
is ludicrous. A lawyer for Antonio Marquez, a brain-damaged and
mentally retarded man who was executed in Texas in 1995, would
later say, "I was never able to discuss the specifics of his
legal case with him, but instead we talked a lot about his
favorite animals, things he liked to draw, and how he missed being
able to see his brothers and sisters."Anthony Porter - whose
I.Q. was 51, among the lowest on record for a condemned prisoner -
spent 16 years on death row in Illinois. At one point he was just
48 hours away from execution when the State Supreme Court granted
him a reprieve. Which was a good thing. Because it turned out he
was innocent. After all those years on death row, he was
exonerated and released in 1999.The U.S. Supreme Court considered
this issue more than a decade ago, and ruled in 1989 that
executing the mentally retarded was not a violation of the Eighth
Amendment. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the majority
in that case, said there was insufficient evidence of a "national
consensus" against such executions. At the time, Georgia and
Maryland were the only states that barred the execution of the
mentally retarded.Mr. Battisti, Antonio Richardson's lawyer, has
asked the Supreme Court to consider his argument that such a
consensus has since developed. Tuesday night's stay of execution
will give the court time to decide whether to hear his argument.
If it decides not to consider it, the stay will automatically
expire.Since 1989, 11 additional states have enacted laws
prohibiting the execution of the retarded, and a number of others,
includingMissouri, are considering such laws.Capital punishment is
always problematic. But additional serious difficulties arise when
those subject to the death penalty are mentally retarded. It is
extremely difficult to determine the level of culpability of
offenders with mental handicaps, and the death penalty is supposed
to be reserved for the most blameworthy perpetrators of the most
heinous acts.In addition, mentally retarded defendants most often
find it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to participate
effectively in their own defense. And there are documented cases
of mentally retarded individuals confessing to murders that they
hadn't committed.Gino Battisti told me yesterday that, given the
opportunity, he will ask the Supreme Court to hold as a matter of
law "that there now exists a national consensus against
executing retarded people" in the United States, and
therefore such executions violate the Eighth Amendment."That's
the single issue I have in my petition," he said. "That's
my only issue."His client's life was at stake and he'd been
up all night. Andover the phone you could hear the exhaustion in
his voice
|
