LUBBOCK, Texas -
The United States Supreme Court will take up a Texas death penalty case in its next term.
The court will hear the case of Bobby Moore, who was convicted of shooting and killing a Houston grocery store employee during a robbery in 1980. He has been on death row since, but his attorneys say his punishment should be reduced on the basis of intellectual disability.
"The question isn't his guilt or innocence. The question is his punishment," said FOX34 Legal Analyst Curtis Parrish. "Should the US Supreme Court say that Bobby Moore is indeed intellectually disabled, it is likely that his punishment would be life without parole rather than the death penalty."
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that intellectually disabled individuals cannot be put to death, but they didn't define "intellectually disabled," instead leaving it up to each state legislature.
"The Texas Legislature has never gotten around to that, so the Court of Criminal Appeals was left with setting out some sort of standards, and to my way of thinking, those standards are insufficient for making the type of determination we're making here," said Rick Wardroup, a capital assistance attorney with the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
According to SCOTUS Blog, the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals relied on a 1992 definition from the professional medical community. The problem is, that same community now regards the definition as out-of-date.
"The Supreme Court generally won't legislate. They're generally going to say these are the minimum standards that we are going to have, these are the constitutional standards," Wardroup said. "I think what they're going to do is encourage the states that haven't legislated a protocol to do that, and maybe that will get through to Texas this time."
The court's next term doesn't start until October, so a ruling is likely about a year away.
"In the meantime, likely what we're going to see is anyone who is at that point of intellectually disabled, their execution will be put on hold," Parrish said.
