STOP KILLING MENTALLY RETARDED: JOHNNY PAUL PENRY'S STORY
JULY 3rd THIRD DEATH SENTENCE FOR JOHNNY-PAUL PENRY
Judge in Penry case gets no help on jury guidance
High court ruling snarls penalty trial
*By HARVEY RICE*
*Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle*
Obviously, that is not waht Judge Coker did. She is in a way responsible for this 3rd death sentence
ARCHIVES
JUNE 20th, 2002: Supreme Court rules execution of the mentally retarded is
unconstitutional WASHINGTON (AP) - A divided Supreme Court reversed itself Thursday
and ruled that executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutionally
cruel. Johnny's third trial THIS
SITE WILL BE DAILY UPDATED. PLEASE COME BACK OFTEN, YOU MIGHT BE
ABLE TO HELP US AND HELP ALL THE MENTALLY RETARDED ALREADY
SENTENCED TO DEATH. Killing
a mentally retarded is an abomination even people who favor death
penalty don't agree with. Read Beverly George's
appeal You can also read two
messages from a specialist on Mentally Retardation: Amnesty International
USA has taken this case as an urgent action: You can read the amicus brief which has been written on
Johnny's behalf, explaining everything about mental retardation: You can visit the page
dedicated to him on CCADP's site. Please do not forget
Johnny: he needs you more than ever. Write him (his letter are
read to him and friends write his answers): THANKS! BOOKS "The Penry
Penalty: Capital punishment and Offenders with Mental
Retardation", by
Emily Fabrycki Reed; Lanham: University Press of America (1993) "The
Criminal Justice System and Mental Retardation: Defendants and
Victims", by
Ronald W. Conley, Ruth Luckasson and George N. Bouthilet;
Baltimore: Paul H Brookes Publishing Co (1992)
The 6-3 ruling is confined to mentally retarded defendants convicted
of murder and does not address the constitutionality of capital
punishment in general.
The majority's view reflects changes in public attitudes on the issue
since the court declared such executions constitutional in 1989.
Then, only two states that used capital punishment outlawed the
practice for the retarded. Now, 18 states prohibit it.
"It is not so much the number of these states that is significant,
but the consistency of the direction of the change," Justice John
Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas dissented. The three, the court's most conservative
members, telegraphed their views earlier this month, when they
complained bitterly about reprieves the court majority had granted to
two Texas inmates who claim they are retarded.
The court ruled in favor of a Virginia inmate, Daryl Renard Atkins,
who was convicted of shooting an Air Force enlisted man for beer
money in 1996. Atkins' lawyers say he has an IQ of 59 and has never
lived on his own or held a job.
The most immediate effect of the ruling will be in the 20 states that
allowed execution of the retarded up to now. Presumably, dozens or
perhaps hundreds of inmates in those states will now argue that they
are retarded, and that their sentences should be converted to life in
prison.
In the future, the ruling will mean that people arrested for a
killing will not face a potential death sentence if they can show
they are retarded, generally defined as having an IQ of 70 or lower.
The dissenting justices said the majority went too far in looking at
factors beyond the state laws.
The majority puts too much stock in opinion polls and the views of
national and international observers, Rehnquist wrote.
"Believing this view to be seriously mistaken, I dissent," Rehnquist
said. Rehnquist omitted the customary word "respectfully"
before "dissent."
The case turned on the 8th Amendment's protection against "cruel and
unusual punishments," and how to define those terms today.
Times change, and with them public sentiment about what is
appropriate punishment for various crimes, the court has observed in
the past. For example, at various times in the country's history it
was considered acceptable to flog people in public, or to execute
those convicted of rape.
Using elected legislatures as a barometer, the court majority
concluded that the public no longer accepts the notion that execution
is appropriate for a killer who may lack the intelligence to fully
understand his crime.
"The practice ... has become unusual, and it is fair to say that a
national consensus has developed against it," Stevens wrote for
himself and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, David
H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
"This consensus unquestionably reflects widespread judgment about the
relative culpability of mentally retarded offenders, and the
relationship between mental retardation and the penological purposes
served by the death penalty," Stevens wrote.
Many mentally retarded defendants know right from wrong, but they are
more likely to act on impulse or to be swayed by others in a group,
Stevens wrote.
"Their deficiencies do not warrant an exemption from criminal
sanctions, but they do diminish their personal culpability."
Counting the 12 states that do not allow capital punishment at all,
30 states prohibit execution of the retarded.
The number of states that banned the practice increased ninefold
between the court's last ruling on the issue and the time it heard
arguments in Atkins' case. The court was forced to toss out a North
Carolina case it originally selected to reconsider the retardation
question last year, because that state banned the practice before the
court could hear the case.
Virginia authorities argued that Atkins planned his crime and
understood afterward what he had done. The state claimed he was no
less culpable for the crime than a person of normal intelligence.
Atkins had 20 previous felonies on his record at the time of the
killing, the state argued. Atkins gave a detailed confession to
police when he was arrested, describing how he and an accomplice
kidnapped the victim, forced him to withdraw cash from a bank teller
machine and then drove him to a deserted field and shot him eight
times.
O'Connor wrote the 5-4 decision in 1989 upholding execution of the
retarded.
There was "insufficient evidence of a national consensus" against the
executions to determine that they were unconstitutionally cruel and
unusual, she wrote then.
President Bush has said he opposes executing the mentally retarded.
Bush's successor as governor of Texas vetoed a ban on the practice.
Request for Court TV coverage of Penry trial denied
The capital murder punishment trial of 46-year-old Johnny Paul Penry begins Monday in the Ninth District Courtroom of the Montgomery County Courthouse with 258th District Judge Elizabeth Coker presiding.
Pre-trial motions will be heard at 8:30 a.m. and the jury will be seated
at 1 p.m.
Although Court TV expressed interest in the case and requested to air the
trial, parties involved in the case decided against it.
Jury selection for the trial concluded May 31 with the selection of 14
people - 12 jurors and 2 alternates - who will determine whether Penry
should be executed or sentenced to life in prison. The 14-member panel is
made up of 5 males and nine females.
Twice convicted and sentenced to death for the Oct. 25, 1979 rape and
murder of 22-year-old Pamela Moseley Carpenter in her Livingston home,
Penry's death sentence has twice been overturned by the U.S. Supreme
Court. Jury selection began April 29 and the process took 5 weeks to
complete, as a panel of 48 qualified potential jurors was needed, from
which the 14-member panel was ultimately selected.
The selection of jurors was a long and involved process as state law
requires individual voir dire in capital cases.
Potential jurors were individually questioned for a minimum of 70
minutes, as each side had 35 minutes to question them.
Penry's death sentence has twice been overturned by the U.S. Supreme
Court, most recently in June 2001 in a 6-3 ruling.
The court held that instructions given by the judge in Penry's 1990 trial
failed to give the jury an adequate opportunity to consider circumstances
such as his alleged mental disabilities, violating the 8th amendment,
which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
Moved to Montgomery County on a change of venue, a Conroe jury
deliberated 45 minutes on April 11 before finding Penry competent to
stand trial for the 1979 crime.
Following 6 days of testimony, jurors found that Penry met the 2
standards 1 must meet to be considered competent to stand trial:
· Sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable
degree of rational understanding; and
· A rational, as well as factual, understanding of the proceeding against
him.
(source: Polk County Enterprise)
Please, help us to say NO to a planned murder. Help us to save
the life of our friend, JOHNNY PAUL PENRY, a mentally retarded
who cannot even understand that the state of Texas wants to kill
him. Johnny is 44, has an IQ around 55, moves, talks, draws as a
6 year-old child. You will hardly have the possibility to write
him to tell him how much you care: John Paul doesn't know how to
read and writes with the help of other prisoners.When he has been
arrested, he did signed (!)a statement someone else wrote. And he
couldn't understand what was in.
Last year Pope Jean-Paul II himself intervened, asking the
Governor of Texas to grant clemency to this poor man.Today Texas
has turned down his latest appeal...and the 5th Circuit has
lifted his stay. He is scheduled to be executed on January 13,
2001.
John Paul has been on death row since 20 years at HUNTSVILLE. By
now, he is in TERRELL. Do you want a new Millenium with such a
gift: the death of a mentally retarded? We need you to fight
against barbarity.
ELECTIONS
2000: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
You will find an overview
of his case, by courtesy of Sant'Egidio.
You can go to Ron
Carlson's page, the reasons of a fight and a personal opinion on
Penry's case:
Sooner or later...
Listen, act, help...
An
act of barbarism
Beyond Reason
(thanks
to Arc for allowing us to add the link)
Johnny's address in Polunsky Unit:
JOHNNY PAUL PENRY #000654 -Polunsky Unit- 12002 FM 350 South
LIVINGSTON, TEXAS 77351
Johnny's current address during the trial:
JOHNNY PAUL PENRY # 421709
Montgomery County Jail
#1 Criminal Justice Drive
CONROE, TX 77301