OH Supreme Court Reverses Death Penalty Case

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 04:23:17 PM EST
Tags: death penalty (all tags)

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Clifton White will not be executed. The Ohio Supreme Court today ruled a judge erred in substituting his opinion for that of experts as to whether White was mentally retarded. Case synopis here and the full opinion is here. (pdf).

In 2002, the Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia banned execution for the mentally retarded as cruel and unusual punishment. White was pursuing post-conviction relief at the time.

Later that year, the Supreme Court of Ohio in State v. Lott established criteria and procedures to be applied ....a petitioner is required to show by a preponderance of the evidence:

“(1) significantly subaverage intellectual functioning,

(2) significant limitations in two or more adaptive skills, such as communication, self-care, and self-direction, and

(3) onset (of the intellectual and adaptive limitations) before the age of 18.”

The trial court in White's case appointed experts and held a hearing. Both the state's expert and the defense expert determined he met the criteria. [More...]

the Summit County Court of Common Pleas appointed experts and conducted an evidentiary hearing on White’s claim. At that hearing, both the expert psychologist selected by the state and the expert psychologist selected by the defense testified that, based on their examinations of White, the results of scientific tests and information they gathered from persons who had known and interacted with White, he met the three Lott criteria for classification as mentally retarded.

Nonetheless, the trial judge disagreed:

Notwithstanding the testimony of the expert witnesses, however, the trial court ... agreed that White’s low scores on intelligence tests met the “subaverage intellectual functioning” test in Lott, but held that White had not presented evidence sufficient to establish a significant lack of adaptive skills or the onset of his limitations prior to age 18, and therefore failed to meet the second and third parts of the Lott test.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled today the Judge was wrong.

“According to the undisputed testimony of the expert witnesses in this case, the facts stated in Kawczk’s testimony are in no way inconsistent with mild mental retardation. The mentally retarded are not n