April 20 TEXAS: High court halts execution set for today----Panel says that the possibility of retardation must be investigated The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday halted the execution of a Houston man after his attorneys raised claims he is mentally retarded. The court said Milton Mathis' claims should be reviewed by the Fort Bend County court in which he was tried nearly 6 years ago. Mathis, 26, was 1 of 2 death row inmates scheduled for lethal injection in a rare double execution today. The U.S. Supreme Court in June 2002 banned the execution of the mentally retarded, saying it violates the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Attorney Stephen Doggett, who is representing Mathis on appeal, said his client took an intelligence test shortly after arriving on death row in December 1999 that showed he had an IQ of 62, "which by anybody's definition is within the range of mental retardation." He said the issue was not raised earlier because the Supreme Court's ruling came 3 years after the trial. Appeals attorneys also had to complete other legal procedures before the mental retardation claim could be pressed. "It's not that the defense has been holding this back as a trump card for 2 years," Doggett said. "Procedurally we couldn't go forward on it." Prosecutors in Fort Bend County disputed that Mathis is ineligible for the death penalty. "From the evidence we have, he is not retarded," said Assistant District Attorney John Harrity. Attorneys on both sides will appear today before state District Judge Brady Elliott to discuss the case. "We will simply be asking (the judge) to give us enough time to do the type of investigating for background information we need to fully explore the issues," Doggett said. Doggett said the defense must prove the inmate was retarded before he turned 18. Mathis was 20 when he took the prison IQ test. Mathis was sentenced to death for fatally shooting 2 men in December 1998. A teenage girl also was left paralyzed. (source: Houston Chronicle) INDIANA----impending execution Execution set for tonight----Convicted murderer Bill Benefiel is scheduled to be executed early Thursday morning at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Benefiel was sentenced to death for the February 1987 murder and rape of 18-year-old Delores Wells in Terre Haute. Prosecutors say Benefiel held her captive in a vacant house for 12 days, sexually abusing her before killing her. Another woman, whom Benefiel held captive for 4 months in the same house, survived and testified against him. Attorneys for Benefiel have asked Governor Daniels to grant clemency, saying Benefiel's mental illness was not taken into account when he was sentenced to death. A spokeswoman says the governor is reviewing the request. (source: WTHR News) GEORGIA: Oldest death row prisoner in Georgia dies----Inmate, 72, received sentence in 1977 The oldest inmate on Georgia's death row died Tuesday of natural causes, prison officials said. Son H. Fleming, 72, was sentenced to death in 1977 for the murder of a South Georgia police chief. Questions about Fleming's mental competence - his lawyers claimed he was retarded - indefinitely delayed his execution. Fleming, his nephew Larry Fleming and Henry Willis III were convicted of killing Ray City police Chief Ed Giddens on Feb. 11, 1976. Giddens had planned to retire the next day. The men had robbed a grocery store earlier in the day. Giddens found a bag of money from that robbery under a seat of their car. The men then abducted Giddens, shot him in the head several times and dumped his body in a Lanier County swamp near the Florida border. Willis was executed in 1989. Larry Fleming is serving a life sentence in prison. Fleming's execution was delayed because the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that he and other condemned inmates were entitled to a mental competency hearing, said Russ Willard, a spokesman for Attorney General Thurbert Baker. That hearing was never pursued by the local district attorney's office. Department of Corrections officials withheld Fleming's cause of death. Fleming suffered several heart attacks and other ailments while incarcerated. The oldest inmate now held under a death sentence is Brandon Astor Jones, 62, who was convicted for the shooting death of a Cobb County gas station manager in 1979. There are 112 men and 1 woman on death row. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) FLORIDA: Time running short for wrongly convicted----Bills to extend the deadline for DNA tests have stalled. State lawmakers pushing to extend the deadline for DNA testing of inmates said Tuesday that time is running out for innocent men and women behind bars in Florida. Unless the Legislature steps in to change the law, defendants convicted more than 4 years ago have only until Oct. 1 to request genetic testing that could exonerate them. Bills that would lift that deadline have stalled in the House and the Senate. "Time is of the essence, and it's falling on deaf ears," said Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, who is championing the bill in the House (HB 247). The bill also has not been heard in the Senate (SB 1004). "This is a dark time for Florida when we know that we have people who are sitting behind bars who should be out free on the street." Jenny Greenberg, director of the Florida Innocence Initiative, said there isn't enough time before October to complete the legal work on hundreds of cases that could be eligible for DNA testing. "There's no reason for there ever to be a deadline on innocence," Greenberg said. Joyner said Rep. Dick Kravitz, R-Orange Park, has refused to hear the bill in his criminal-justice committee. Kravitz said he supports DNA testing for people who are wrongfully convicted, but supporters of extending the deadline came to him too late in the process. With less than 3 weeks left in this year's legislative session, Kravitz is not holding any more meetings. Wilton Dedge of Port St. John offered his own story on the steps of the Old Capitol on Tuesday as evidence of the value of DNA evidence. Dedge, 43, was released from prison last year after serving 22 years for a rape he didn't commit. He requested DNA testing in 1987, but it took 17 years before the tests were completed and he was freed. He said he thinks there are other people who, like him, were wrongfully convicted and will remain in prison if DNA testing isn't allowed. The Legislature set the original deadline for DNA testing for Oct. 1, 2003, but the Florida Supreme Court delayed that deadline, and lawmakers voted last year to extend the date again until October of this year. (source: Orlando Sentinel)
