Categories
intellectual disabilities Stay of execution

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halts execution of Garcia White, denies appeal of Robert Ladd

Earlier today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a reprieve to Garcia White. White was scheduled to be put to death on January 28th for the 1989 stabbing deaths of Bonita Edwards and her 16-year-old twin daughters, Annette and Bernette, in their Houston home. He was convicted by a Harris County jury in 1996.  The court did not provide a reason for the stay of execution.  Read more from the Associated Press via the Huffington Post.

Also today, the state’s highest criminal court denied the appeal of Robert Ladd, who is scheduled to be executed on Thursday for the 1996 murder of Vicki Ann Garner in Tyler (Smith County). According to a press release from the ACLU, Ladd, who has been diagnosed with an I.Q. of 67, “doesn’t meet the Texas courts’ standards to determine whether a person is intellectually disabled, which were drawn in part on the character Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.”  Read more from the ACLU.

The ACLU has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of Robert Ladd’s execution, based on evidence of his intellectual disabilities. Attorneys also have asked the Justices to review the decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Their certiorari petition, stay motion, and other documents are available here: https://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment/ex-parte-ladd.