Post by sclcookie on Jun 3, 2006 2:34:38 GMT -5
Judge to decide whether Lufkin woman's killer should stay on death row
A hearing on whether to overturn the death sentence against a man
convicted of killing an Angelina County woman in 1986 was expected to
continue for a 2nd day today, according to information from state district
court. A judge may decide whether the killer's IQ is too low to keep him
on death row.
Houston attorneys are representing David Lee Lewis' claim he is
mentally-retarded, which would make his capital murder conviction illegal
under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling.
In Atkins v. Virginia the high court said executing the mentally-retarded
was cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Lewis shot 74-year-old Myrtle Ruby - returning home from church choir
practice - to death Nov. 30, 1986, after breaking into her house,
according to court records quoted in a Northern Illinois University Web
site study on the death penalty.
Lewis shot Ruby with a .22-caliber rifle as she confronted him during the
burglary, Angelina County District Attorney Clyde Herrington told The
Lufkin Daily News in a 2005 story.
Lewis was a 39-year-old former carpenter with an eighth-grade education at
the time of the murder. He had already served two years in prison for
burglary in Brazoria County.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2004 overturned another Lufkin
capital murder case on the basis of mental retardation.
Willie Mack Modden, who died in prison in April 2006, was twice sentenced
to die in the 1984 stabbing death of 27-year-old Deborah Ann Fontenot
Davenport. The mother of four was working at a Frank Avenue gas station,
since razed, when Modden attacked her during a robbery.
Modden's IQ was "borderline," in the mid-60s. Earlier tests put his IQ
higher, in the mid-80s, according to court records.
Modden's violent history included robbing a woman and forcing her to
strip, and slashing an inmate's throat during one of his 3 prison
sentences.
More evidence is expected to be presented today in Lufkin in the case to
end Lewis' death sentence.
(source: Lufkin Daily News)
A hearing on whether to overturn the death sentence against a man
convicted of killing an Angelina County woman in 1986 was expected to
continue for a 2nd day today, according to information from state district
court. A judge may decide whether the killer's IQ is too low to keep him
on death row.
Houston attorneys are representing David Lee Lewis' claim he is
mentally-retarded, which would make his capital murder conviction illegal
under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling.
In Atkins v. Virginia the high court said executing the mentally-retarded
was cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Lewis shot 74-year-old Myrtle Ruby - returning home from church choir
practice - to death Nov. 30, 1986, after breaking into her house,
according to court records quoted in a Northern Illinois University Web
site study on the death penalty.
Lewis shot Ruby with a .22-caliber rifle as she confronted him during the
burglary, Angelina County District Attorney Clyde Herrington told The
Lufkin Daily News in a 2005 story.
Lewis was a 39-year-old former carpenter with an eighth-grade education at
the time of the murder. He had already served two years in prison for
burglary in Brazoria County.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2004 overturned another Lufkin
capital murder case on the basis of mental retardation.
Willie Mack Modden, who died in prison in April 2006, was twice sentenced
to die in the 1984 stabbing death of 27-year-old Deborah Ann Fontenot
Davenport. The mother of four was working at a Frank Avenue gas station,
since razed, when Modden attacked her during a robbery.
Modden's IQ was "borderline," in the mid-60s. Earlier tests put his IQ
higher, in the mid-80s, according to court records.
Modden's violent history included robbing a woman and forcing her to
strip, and slashing an inmate's throat during one of his 3 prison
sentences.
More evidence is expected to be presented today in Lufkin in the case to
end Lewis' death sentence.
(source: Lufkin Daily News)