Court blocks Modden execution
Posted on 06/12/2002 2:47:10 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Court blocks Modden execution
06/11/2002
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - An East Texas man convicted of a robbery-murder in Lufkin almost 18 years ago won a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court about 31/2 hours before he was scheduled to be executed Tuesday.
The high court, acting in the case of Willie Mack Modden, stopped the planned lethal injection as Modden's lawyers appealed he should not be put to death because he is mentally retarded.
Modden, who grew up in the Jasper area, was sentenced to die for the July 29, 1984, fatal stabbing of Deborah Davenport, 27. The Lufkin mother of three had been filling in for a co-worker when she was robbed and killed while working the late shift at a Lufkin convenience store.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court halted the executions of two other Texas inmates who raised similar claims about mental retardation. The high court has been reviewing a Virginia case that challenges the constitutionality of executing mentally retarded people and a decision is expected at any time.
Modden, 54, would have been the 16th Texas inmate executed this year. Another execution is set for Thursday and three more are scheduled for later in June.
While the high court vote was not announced, three justices -- Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- said they were not in favor of the reprieve.
Modden's first conviction, in 1985, was overturned because jurors were not allowed to consider his claims of mental retardation as mitigating evidence when they decided he should be put to death.
He was tried again in 1992, convicted and condemned. At that trial, jurors were told his IQ was 64. An IQ of 70 is considered the threshold for retardation.
"I don't remember much," Modden recently told The Lufkin Daily News. Asked about his execution, he responded: "It don't bother me ... gotta go some day."
Evidence showed Davenport used her own quarter to buy a 10-cent cup of coffee for him. Witnesses who were buying gasoline identified Modden as inside the store just before 2 a.m. Another customer a few minutes later found Davenport behind the counter, stabbed 18 times in the face and neck.
Modden got about $80.
Modden had an extensive criminal past, starting at age 18 with a burglary conviction. At the time of the Davenport slaying, he was on parole seven months after serving 10 years of a 25-year term for aggravated robbery.
On top of that, he actually did murder someone (apparently the facts of the case aren't in dispute).
Finally, how does an M.R. get through the ninth grade?
Suddenly, in Texas ALL the inmates are claiming they're "M.R." If I didn't know better, I'd smell "shyster".
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