WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court refused on Wednesday to pause a Texas man’s execution to review his intellectual disability claims.
Arthur Lee Burton asked the high court for a stay to pursue an intellectual disability defense against his death sentence. The justices denied his request. There were no noted dissents.
Burton was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of Nancy Adleman. Police discovered Adleman’s body in a shallow hole in a heavily wooded area of the bayou where she had gone for a jog. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with her own shoelace.
Burton initially confessed to the murder but recanted at trial. In June 1998, a jury convicted Burton of capital murder and sentenced him to death. His sentence was reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, but he received another death sentence in 2002. All of his subsequent petitions for relief were denied.
In a last-ditch effort, Burton claimed his mental disability disqualified him for execution.
Executing mentally disabled individuals has been unconstitutional since the court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia. In the decades since the ruling, however, states have struggled to determine Atkins’ requirements.
In 2014, the court rejected a bright line rule setting an IQ score requirement in Hall v. Florida. The justices rebuked Texas’ application of Atkins twice. In 2017, the court criticized a lower court for relying on outdated medical standards. Moore v. Texas returned to the court two years later, and the justices again found errors in the lower court’s application of Atkins.
Many death row inmates have unsuccessfully petitioned the court for a new review of intellectual disability standards. The majority of cases land on the court’s emergency docket, like Burton’s case, but the justices are currently considering an appeal from Alabama for review next term.
Two clinical psychologists found that Burton’s neuropsychological testing showed significantly subaverage intellectual ability. Burton also struggled academically in his youth. He repeated both the second and eighth grades and was placed in special education.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Burton’s petition. His lawyers said the state's highest criminal court was still failing to correctly apply Moore.
“The TCCA’s recent decisions, including the one below, unfortunately reflect that despite the court’s painstakingly clear and thorough guidance, the TCCA is unwilling to accept as a prima facie Atkins claim an unrebutted diagnosis of intellectual disability pursuant to the DSM-5-TR and allow such a claim to proceed for further factual development and hearing,” Burton’s attorney wrote in a petition before the court.
Texas said Burton failed to present any constitutional violations, stating that Burton asked the court to review whether the dismissal of his claims by the lower court prevented the state from executing him because of his intellectual disability.
“Burton has not furnished a single reason the lower court erred in rejecting his claim or for this court to grant a writ of certiorari, let alone a compelling one,” Tomee Heining, Texas’ deputy chief of criminal appeals, wrote in a brief before the court.
Burton will be executed on Wednesday evening.
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