Appeals court halts execution of mentally disabled man

A court decision halted the execution of a 26-year-old mentally retarded man hours before he was due to die by injection last night.

A Missouri appeals court stayed the execution of Antonio Richardson pending the outcome of a US Supreme Court hearing involving a convicted killer from Texas named John Paul Penry, who is also borderline mentally retarded.

Richardson was facing execution this morning in Missouri for a crime he committed at the age of 16 in April 1991.

The prospect of the execution had prompted yet another round of protests from anti death-penalty groups like Amnesty International, and the EU had sent the US a diplomatic protest which the Swedish Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindt, reiterated yesterday on behalf of the Presidency at a ministerial meeting in Washington between the US and EU.

Adding her voice to the protests was the mother of two girls who were raped and then killed by Richardson and two accomplices. Ms Ginny Kerry told KTVI-TV in St Louis that she felt Richardson, who has an IQ of 70, was responsible for his crime. "But I requested clemency for him because of his youth and his diminished mental capacity," she said.

But other members of the victims' family are less sympathetic. Tink Cummins's brother narrowly escaped with his life. She is blunt: "If you're saying Antonio should be excused because he's mentally retarded, I would take issue with that as being insulting to mentally retarded people," she told TV. "He knew what he was doing and he enjoyed it.

"And if you're saying he was 16, so was I. I was 16, too, at the time of the killings. I knew right from wrong."

On that night Richardson and three friends, who had been drinking and smoking marijuana, had accidentally met two young women, Julie (21) and Robin Kerry (19), and their cousin Thomas Cummins (19) on an old disused bridge over the Mississippi. A robbery turned into a rape and then the three were forced to jump 70 feet from the bridge into the fast-flowing river.

Thomas Cummins surfaced and saw Julie struggling, then tried to rescue her, but could not. He was able to swim to safety. Julie's body was recovered near Caruthersville, about 200 miles south of St Louis, three weeks later. Robin's body was never recovered.

Richardson and two others face the death penalty while their companion will serve life. But Richardson's case raises particular problems in a state which is considering legislation to ban the execution of the mentally disabled. Prosecutors deny, however, that Richardson would meet the agreed definition.

His age is also a matter of concern. "The whole thing is shocking," argues Ms Anne James of the Children and Family Justice Centre, at Northwestern University. "Juvenile executions are particularly worrisome. If a child deviates from the norm, this is how we punish them - we kill them."

Reuters adds:

Sexual abuse is rife in women's prisons in the US, according to a report issued yesterday, which found cases of sexual misconduct against women inmates in all but one state.

Amnesty International USA said in its report that US laws protecting women inmates against abuse were so weak that a prisoner was often held responsible for her attackers' behaviour.

"The results are profoundly distressing and should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who thinks that women are not tortured or mistreated in this country," said Amnesty's executive director in the US, Mr William Schulz.