Posted on 10/05/2005 2:46:40 PM PDT by Racehorse
Convicted killer Johnny Paul Penry, whose case helped spark national debate over whether mentally impaired inmates could be executed, had his death sentence overturned for the third time Wednesday.
A divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent the case back to trial for a new punishment phase in the 1979 slaying of an East Texas woman. The court ruling said jurors during his most recent retrial may not have properly considered his claims of mental impairment.
Over more than a decade, the uneducated laborer became the face of mentally impaired killers across the country, winning two reversals from the U.S. Supreme Court that changed the way judges instruct juries in capital murder cases.
In July 2002, shortly after the high court ruled that executing mentally retarded killers is unconstitutional, a jury in Conroe determined Penry was not retarded and again sentenced him to die. It was the third time he was sent to death row for the slaying of Pamela Moseley Carpenter, 22, the sister of former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley.
The Court of Criminal Appeals opinion written by Judge Tom Price and joined by four others, however, said improper jury instructions in his latest trial prevented jurors from considering the full scope of his claims of mental impairment, even if they didn't find him retarded. Four judges dissented.
John Wright, one of Penry's attorneys in 2002, said that given a new trial, defense lawyers will continue to try to prove Penry is retarded.
. . . prosecutors will ask the court to reconsider its ruling.
"(Penry) has never won at the trial court level before a jury," Hon said. "I think it speaks volumes on his case that three juries have found him to be death-worthy. Yet at the appellate level, he again wins relief."
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
Interesting to follow.
"I think it speaks volumes on his case that three juries have found him to be death-worthy." .........I agree
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