Copyright 1993, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
November 16, 1993, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: METRO, Pg. B1
LENGTH: 511 words
HEADLINE: DEFENSE COUNSEL SAYS MISSKELLEY RETARDED;
HEARING IS TODAY FOR SUSPECT IN SLAYING OF 3 BOYS
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan; The Commercial Appeal
BODY:
Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. is mentally retarded and should not be executed if he is convicted of the murders of three West Memphis 8-year-olds, his attorney said Monday.
The issue may be resolved today when Circuit Judge David Burnett also considers whether Misskelley, who was 17 when the murders occurred May 5, should be tried in January as an adult.
An Arkansas law passed earlier this year prohibits the execution of mentally retarded convicts. Misskelley attorney Daniel T. Stidham said a psychologist he declined to name evaluated his client and found he had an IQ of 72. Average IQs range from 90 to 100. Arkansas law presumes mental retardation in cases where the defendant has an IQ of 65 or less.
Stidham is expected to try to prove mental retardation with additional evidence. ''He's certainly no rocket scientist by any stretch of the imagination,'' Stidham said Monday.
Misskelley, Charles Jason Baldwin and Damien Wayne Echols, 18 at the time the murders occurred, have been charged in deaths of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
Burnett ruled last month that Baldwin, who had just turned 16 when the murders occurred, will be tried in February as an adult.
Stidham and attorney Gregory Crow have maintained that Misskelley was legally incapable of waiving his rights to an attorney before making a statement to police in June.
In the statement, he allegedly said that he, Baldwin and Echols, who turns 19 in December, were present when the boys were bludgeoned, and one was sexually mutilated with a knife.
Tennessee law also prohibits executing the mentally retarded, using an IQ of 70 as evidence of ''subaverage'' intelligence. Mississippi juries are permitted to consider mental retardation as a ''mitigating factor'' when considering the death penalty.
Any finding that Misskelley is mentally retarded could affect a jury's view of the credibility of his alleged statement to police.
According to the transcript of his statement to police, Misskelley said the murders took place around noon and that the boys were lured into the woods after skipping school. Neither statement is consistent with facts.
Before he made his statement implicating himself and the others, Misskelley was asked by West Memphis Police Det. Bryn Ridge if he understood he had the right to remain silent and could have a lawyer present during questioning. Misskelley said he understood his rights and signed a waiver form.
Stidham maintains his client didn't really understand. In court last month, Stidham said Misskelley's parents were the only ones legally capable of waiving the 17-year-old's rights. The parents were not present during the questioning.
Barry Lee Fairchild, who was scheduled to die in September for the 1983 rape and murder of an Air Force nurse, has maintained he was retarded with an IQ in the low 60s. A federal judge ruled that Fairchild was not mentally retarded and would have an IQ between 75 and 87 if tested under optimal circumstances. Arkansas has executed four inmates since 1964.
