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| Marvin Lee Wilson |
On August 7, 2012, a 54-year-old man named Marvin Lee Wilson is scheduled to die by lethal injection. The state of Texas will execute him for the 1992 murder of Jerry Robert Williams. Wilson was convicted of shooting Williams and leaving him to die allegedly because Williams was a drug informant for the police. Wilson’s execution has gone through a long appeals process, but after nearly 18 years on death row an execution date approaches.
While executions in the state of Texas aren’t necessarily newsworthy, as the state executes convicted criminals at a rate four times higher than any other state, this particular execution stands out because Wilson is reportedly mentally disabled.
Wilson has an I.Q. of only 61 on the Wechsler test which falls well under the legal standard for mentally disabled. During the appeals process Wilson was diagnosed with mental retardation by Dr. Donald Trahan, a court-appointed, board certified neuropsychologist with 22 years of clinical experience as a mental retardation specialist.
Previously, Wilson’s mental disability was not allowed to factor into his case in federal court because his lawyer at the time missed a filing deadline. His current attorney, Lee Kovarsky Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Law School, told the Grio that Wilson’s current defense team has filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We currently have a petition before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which asks for an order commuting the sentence from death to life in prison. As an alternative we will also request a 120 reprieve, a recommendation that goes to the governor [Rick Perry] who can grant that or issue his own 30 day reprieve.”
“This is a very unique case,” says Kovarsky, “This is about as strong of an Atkins claim as you will see” referring to the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case Atkins v. Virginia where the Court held that executions of mentally retarded criminals are “cruel and unusual punishments” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.
“Usually [Atkins] claims this strong don’t lose,” says Kovarsky. One of the unique factors in Wilson’s case which might prove a challenge in terms of reprieve from Governor Perry’s office is that, “historically his office has shown an interest in cases where there is innocence alleged. In certain Atkins claims, the mentally [disabled] are wrongly assigned leadership roles in multi-party crimes, and it’s possible that Wilson was simply, “part of the group that committed the crime but was not the shooter or principle party.” It is not known for certain whether Wilson was the shooter or simply a party to the crime.
Despite the fact that the Supreme Court announced standards under the Eighth Amendment in Atkins, the holding did not include any specific standard or set of standards that all states were required to adopt. This opened the door for states like Texas with vigorous death penalty activity to adopt their own standards under which to consider the legality of executions of defendants claiming mental incapacity. While the Supreme Court relied on the standard clinical test approved by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities that has around for 100 years, Texas has its own factors called the Briseño factors (named after a Texas defendant). The Briseño factors are not used by any scientists or clinicians to determine mental capacity and include things such as a defendant being married, having children, working, and lying for in their own self-interest.
“They said that Marvin [Wilson] was not retarded because he was able to work construction and get married and have a child. They said he lied in own self interest because he denied his own guilt,” says Kovarsky, “How far outside scientific consensus can you go?”
Wilson’s petition before the U.S. Supreme Court presents the question to the Court as to whether the Briseño factors used by the state of Texas are too narrow a standard with which to consider Wilson’s mental capacity in violation of the rule set by the Court in Atkins. It is now up to the Supreme Court — or less likely Governor Rick Perry — to determine whether Wilson’s life may be sparred before next week’s scheduled execution.
Source: The Grio, August 2, 2012
Texas Executing Inmates at Near-Record Pace: Aug. 7 execution date set for inmate who claims mental retardation
Continuing a pace of executions that, if it holds, would nearly tie 2010's 17 executions, on Aug. 7 Texas is slated to put to death Marvin Lee Wilson, sent to death row in 1998 for the 1992 murder of a police informant in Beaumont.
Wilson had one previous date with the death chamber, but it was withdrawn after a question was raised about whether Wilson is mentally retarded, which would violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, per a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Initially, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Wilson's claim of mental retardation couldn't be heard because his lawyer had missed a deadline for filing an appeal.
The decision was widely criticized, and the appeals court ultimately reversed its ruling, allowing Wilson's claims to be raised in federal court. Still, Wilson has not been able to meet the burden for proving mental deficiency, which includes showing that his low IQ existed before he turned 18. In 2004, lawyers presented evidence that Wilson's IQ was 61; a 1971 test measured it at 73, and in 1987 it was recorded as 75. However one of Wilson's current attorneys, Lee Kovarsky, says that the previous tests were not comprehensive, and thus not dispositive of whether Wilson is actually mentally retarded. Wilson has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a stay of execution. At issue is whether the state's test for determining mental retardation is sufficient to satisfy the constitution.
Wilson would be the 483rd inmate executed in Texas since reinstatement of the death penalty, the 245th executed on Gov. Rick Perry's watch, and the seventh this year. Through mid-November, the state has seven more executions scheduled. (The Aug. 1 execution of Marcus Druery was stayed by the Court of Criminal Appeals late last week, on grounds that he may be incompetent; see "Is Druery Sane Enough To Die?," Newsdesk blog, July 24.
Source: Austin Chronicle, August 2, 2012
MENTAL DISABILITY CLAIM AS EXECUTION IMMINENT
A 54-year-old African American man, Marvin Wilson, is due to be executed in Texas on 7 August for a murder committed in 1992. A clinical neuropsychologist has concluded that he has an intellectual disability that would render his execution unconstitutional.
On 4 November 1992, Marvin Wilson was arrested, and then released on bail, for possession of cocaine. Six days later the body of Jerry Williams, a police informant whose information had led to the arrest, was found in Beaumont, Texas. He had been shot. Marvin Wilson was charged with murder, convicted, and sentenced to death in 1994. In 1997, his conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) due to improper arguments to the jury by the prosecutor. He was re-tried in 1998 and again convicted and sentenced to death. His precise role in the murder and the reliability of the evidence used against him remain under challenge by his current lawyers.
In 2002, the US Supreme Court, in Atkins v. Virginia, outlawed the execution of people with "mental retardation" under the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments". The Court did not define retardation, although it pointed to definitions used by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Association of Mental Retardation (AAMR, now the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, AAIDD). Under such definitions, mental retardation is a disability, manifested before the age of 18, characterized by significantly sub-average intellectual functioning (generally indicated by an IQ of less than 70) accompanied by limitations in two or more adaptive skill areas such as communication, self-care, work, and functioning in the community. The Court left it to the states as to how to comply with the ruling. Ten years later, the Texas legislature still has not enacted a law to comply with the ruling. In the absence of such legislation, in 2004 the TCCA issued temporary guidelines.
In 2003, Marvin Wilson's lawyers challenged his death sentence under Atkins. In 2004, a court-appointed neuropsychologist with 22 years of clinical experience concluded that Wilson had mental retardation. He personally conducted nine different tests of varying sorts and reviewed existing materials and records. He noted that over the years, Marvin Wilson's IQ had been assessed between 61 and 75, the lowest being that most recently conducted, under a test widely considered to be the most accurate. Marvin Wilson had been in special education classes throughout his schooling as a child and the expert found that as an adult his language development was "well within the impaired range", his reading comprehension was "very limited", and his conceptual and practical skills were substantially impaired. The state has presented no expert testimony to rebut this evidence, but the state courts rejected the Atkins claim under the TCCA guidelines and the federal courts have upheld this denial.
Please write immediately, in English or your own language, citing Marvin Wilson's Inmate No.#999098:
- Explaining that you are not seeking to excuse the murder of Jerry Williams or downplay the suffering caused;
- Noting the evidence of Marvin Wilson's intellectual disability, which an expert has concluded constitutes mental retardation, not rebutted by any expert evidence presented by the state;
- Noting that a decade after the Atkins v. Virginia ruling, Texas still has not passed a law to comply with it;
- Opposing the execution of Marvin Wilson and calling for his death sentence to be commuted.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 7 AUGUST 2012 TO:
Clemency Section, Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
8610 Shoal Creek Blvd. Austin, TX 78757-6814, USA
Fax: 1 512 467 0945
Email: bpp-pio@tdcj.state.tx.us
Salutation: Dear Board members
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor,
PO Box 12428, Austin, Texas 78711-2428
USA
Fax: 1 512 463 1849
Salutation: Dear Governor
Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if sending appeals after the above date.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
A Texas trial-level court rejected Marvin Wilson's Atkins claim in November 2004. The TCCA and the federal courts upheld this decision, despite the fact that the state had not presented any expert testimony to rebut the defense expert's conclusion that Marvin Wilson met the criteria for a diagnosis of mild mental retardation. The state court addressed the question of adaptive deficits and the question of onset of mental retardation before the age of 18 in a single paragraph. Indeed it made no explicit findings about whether Marvin Wilson had significant limitations in adaptive functioning. Instead, it made findings under the 2004 "temporary" guidelines drawn up the TCCA in the absence of guidance from the Texas legislature [known as the "Briseño" factors as they were developed in the case of death row inmate José Briseño]. Thus, for example, the state court found that there was no evidence that Marvin Wilson was a follower, that he was capable of lying when he felt it in his best interest, that the crime had displayed deliberate forethought and planning, and that there was no evidence that anyone had considered or diagnosed him as having mental retardation before the age of 18.
In 2011, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit noted that "other fact finders might reach a different conclusion as to whether Wilson is mentally retarded on the evidence" before the state court. However, the Fifth Circuit ruled that under the deferential standards that federal courts are required to give state court rulings under US law, Marvin Wilson had failed to overcome the "presumption of correctness" attached to the state court's decision. Wilson's lawyers are currently seeking review by the US Supreme Court, including on the question of whether Texas – and the Fifth Circuit as the federal court overseeing capital cases out of Texas – have become "extreme outliers" in providing deficient protection under Atkins as a result of relying on the "Briseño factors". In their brief to the Court, they argue: "Texas courts and the Fifth Circuit are…allowing the execution to proceed, having concluded that Atkins does not apply to Mr Wilson because he does not satisfy the so-called 'Briseño' factors. The Briseño factors, which Texas courts use to conduct MR [mental retardation] inquiries, narrow the universe of offenders that Atkins protects by permitting execution of offenders with 'mild MR,' the condition for which Atkins originally announced the Eighth Amendment exemption." The question for the Supreme Court, the brief asserts, is "whether Texas can evade Atkins and whether lower federal courts must enforce it."
The lawyers are also continuing to challenge the reliability of Marvin Wilson's conviction, and point to reasons that the US Supreme Court gave in Atkins for prohibiting the death penalty against offenders with mental retardation who it said had categorically less culpability because of their impairments (for example that such a disability can cause a person to be a poor witness on his own behalf, to make false confessions and so on). In their brief to the Supreme Court, the lawyers note that Marvin Wilson "received his sentence under precisely the circumstances that make the capital punishment of offenders with MR problematic: he was one of multiple perpetrators, the eyewitness identification of the primary assailant shifted over time, the more-sophisticated accomplice fingered Mr. Wilson as the leader, and evidence of Mr. Wilson's 'confession' came from the accomplice's wife."
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally in all cases, regardless of questions of guilt or innocence, the crime, or the method used to kill the prisoner. Today, more than 140 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. In the USA there have been 1301 executions since executions resumed there in 1977. Texas accounts for 483 of these executions. There have been 24 executions in the USA so far in 2012, six of them in Texas.
Name: Marvin Lee Wilson (m)
Issues: Death penalty
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