A federal appeals court halted the execution of a Texas murder convict Tuesday and granted him fresh appeal following his intellectual disability claims.
Robert James Campbell, a convicted rapist and murder, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening. His lawyers appealed, arguing that Campbell had an IQ of 69. They also cited the Oklahoma botched execution demanding the state disclose the source of the lethal drugs.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit extended the time for Campbell's lawyers to substantiate his mental incompetency claims. Minimum threshold IQ set by the courts is 70. In a 2002 ruling the Supreme Court ordered that mentally challenged people will be barred from execution, the Associated Press reports.
"It is regrettable that we are now reviewing evidence of intellectual disability at the eleventh hour before Campbell's scheduled execution," the justices wrote. (Access the court ruling here). "However, from the record before us, it appears that we cannot fault Campbell or his attorneys, present or past, for the delay."
Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General, filed a petition asking why Campbell waited so long to state he was mentally handicapped. "Campbell's last-minute claim of mental retardation, which was previously raised and rejected in the federal and state court does not warrant review. Campbell is not mentally retarded," said Abbot, CNN reports.
Last Friday, the district judge Keith cited precedent for not disclosing the manufacturing pharmacies of the lethal drugs. However, he said that the federal appeals court should re-check in to the matter and consider more openness after the Oklahoma failed execution.
Clayton Lockett, 38, was found guilty of raping and murdering a young girl. He was given new untested combination of three drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, April 29. After the lethal dose was administered Lockett was declared unconsciousness 10 minutes later. He then woke up and was found writhing and moaning in agony. He eventually died of a massive heart attack nearly 43 minutes later.
Oklahoma ordered a 6-month stay on execution until the probe into Lockett's death was completed. Jay Carney, White House spokesman told reporters the next day that the Lockett execution clearly "fell short" of human standards.
The next execution in Texas is scheduled for August. Missouri has an execution scheduled for next week. Lawyers of the inmate Russell Bucklew appealed stating that he has a vascular tumor and circulatory problems that might pose risk in execution similar to Lockett's.
European drug makers ceased manufacturing chemicals that are used in the death penalty. Some states turned to local pharmacies for their needs, because of which the officials reason that the identity of each drug used in the cocktail must remain secret.
"Their fear is that the companies will refuse to give them the drugs or sell them the drugs once they're names are made public," Richard Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, told RT in an interview. "Texas is trying to find them from a secret source, a compounding pharmacy, probably within Texas. But they don't want to reveal it lest they lose that contact."
Texas has executed 515 people since 1976, making it the state to have put maximum number of inmates to death. Following Texas is Oklahoma with a total of 111 executions.
