JACKSON — Mississippi inmate Sherwood Brown is seeking to have his death sentence overturned because he is mentally disabled.
A DeSoto County judged ruled against Brown in 2013. Brown appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Oct. 6 in Jackson.
Brown argues there was sufficient evidence to support his contention he is mentally disabled but the trial judge chose to ignore them. Brown said the evidence showed he had an IQ score that meets the requirements for a diagnosis of mental disability, has multiple significant adaptive functioning deficits and his mental disability had onset before age 18.
The attorney general’s office countered the trial court reached the correct conclusion and Brown didn’t prove mental disability.
Brown, now 46, was sentenced to death in 1995 after being convicted on two counts of murder and one count of capital murder.
Authorities said Betty Boyd, 82, her daughter-in-law, Verline Boyd, 49, and Evangelo Charmain Boyd, 13, the daughter of Verline Boyd and Betty Boyd’s granddaughter were found hacked to death in Betty Boyd’s home south of Eudora on Jan. 7, 1993.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Brown’s appeal of his death penalty sentence in 1997, but in 2002 the high court ruled in a Virginia case that it’s illegal to execute people who are mentally disabled. The court said it would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment” to execute anyone with a combined IQ of 75 or lower.
IQ is intelligence quotient. An IQ of 100 is said to represent normal intelligence. An IQ lower than 75 is said to reflect mental disability. The Supreme Court was quite specific. It said that an IQ of 76 would not grant criminals protection from execution.
At the time of Brown’s trial, Dr. Marcia Little, a clinical psychologist, testified that Brown had borderline intelligence, between being mildly disabled and the level of intelligence of the general population.
Prosecutors said Little was wrong.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.