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JUNE 5, 2001

For the second time in two decades, the Supreme Court has thrown out the death sentence of a a mentally retarded Texas man.

By a 6-3 vote, the Court said instructions a Texas jury was given in 1990 didn't allow them to consider Johnny Paul Penry's mental capacity. He has the intelligence of a seven-year-old and has been convicted of murdering a woman in 1979.

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia, dissented with the majority.

The Court next term will consider the general question of executing mentally retarded convicts.

Get the Case Penry v. Johnson:
Summary | Opinion | Dissent

Get the Story:
Death Sentence For Retarded Man Is Overturned (The Washington Post 6/5)

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