Despite a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Atkins v. Virginia, that banned execution of persons diagnosed with mental retardation, Texas continues to hold men with severe mental disabilities on death row. Reneé Feltz, a reporter for Free Speech Radio News, looks at Texas psychologist Dr. George Denkowski, who has served as an expert witness for the prosecution in dozens of capital cases. His evaluations have determined these defendants’ eligibility for execution based on estimates of their IQ scores.
Read Feltz’s related Texas Observer story, which includes an interactive graphic of the twenty-nine Atkins cases Dr. Denkowski worked on in Texas.
Support for the story was provided by the Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund, now known as Type Investigations.