IQ irrelevant in death cases
Re “Death row’s IQ divide,” Opinion, May 8
Sara Catania misapplies the concept of IQ. The people on death row are there not for a deficiency in intelligence but a deficiency in moral sense.
People generally learn right from wrong at an early age, and virtually all know at least by age 7 that killing people or stealing is wrong. It is not at all apparent from Catania’s writing why Jorge Junior Vidal, who “has a hard time understanding English or Spanish and struggles with routine tasks,” should not be executed for torture and murder. His IQ is as irrelevant to the concept of guilt or innocence as is his presumed inability to solve quadratic equations. The only relevant inquiry is whether he is capable of understanding that murdering people is wrong.
JOHN C. WILSON
Santa Monica
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