Execution of Mentally Retarded Killer Halted
A state appeals court halted this week’s scheduled execution of a convicted killer after his attorneys argued that he is mentally retarded.
James Lee Clark, 34, was scheduled to die by injection Thursday for the 1993 shooting, rape, robbery and murder of a 17-year-old Denton high school student. Another teenager was slain in the same incident.
Clark’s lawyers invoked a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring execution of the mentally retarded. The court agreed to review that claim, delaying Clark’s execution indefinitely.
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