WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has sided with a Texas death row inmate who claims he should not be executed because he is intellectually disabled.
The justices on Tuesday reversed a Texas appeals court ruling that held that inmate Bobby James Moore was not intellectually disabled.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in her majority opinion that Texas’ top criminal appeals court ignored current medical standards and required use of outdated standards when it decided Moore isn’t mentally disabled. That ruling removed a legal hurdle to Moore’s execution for the shotgun slaying of a Houston grocery store clerk in 1980.
The decision was the second this term in which the high court has ruled for a Texas death row inmate. In February, the justices said race improperly tainted inmate Duane Buck’s death sentence.
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