James Lee Clark
Encyclopedia
James Lee Clark was an American
murderer whose controversial execution by the state of Texas
sparked international outcry as it was believed by many that his execution violated the U.S. Supreme Court
ruling in Atkins v. Virginia
(2002)
which held that executions of mentally retarded
criminals is cruel and unusual punishment
prohibited by the Eighth Amendment
.
Clark and his accomplice
, James Richard Brown, were charged with capital murder
for the June 7, 1993 robbery
, rape
and murder
of 17-year-old Shari Catherine "Cari" Crews in Denton County, Texas
. Also killed was 16 year old Jesus Garza for whom both Clark and Brown were charged with murder, however, Clark was never tried for this case. Brown was also charged with capital murder but a jury found him guilty of only the robbery charge and was sentenced to 20 years.
. Court documents revealed that his father disappeared the day he found out Clark's mother was pregnant. Testimony from a psychologist at his appeals hearing stated that Clark told him he had his first drink when he was seven years old and was commonly drunk by the age of 13, at which point he also began to smoke cannabis
regularly. After failing two grades and being placed in special education
classes he dropped out of school in the ninth grade
.
At the age of 15 he was remanded into the Gainesville State School, a reformatory
for boys and girls in Gainesville, Texas
, for auto theft
. At that time his mother told the Texas Youth Commission
that “has no friends in school ... because he steals from them all.” and Clark was subsequently diagnosed as having a “conduct disorder, associated with psychological deprivation, coupled with features of immature personality.” At the Gainesville State School, Clark was able to complete his GED
and was released at the age of 18 to find his mother had abandoned him, wanting nothing more to do with him.
burglary
of a building and incarcerated in state prison. In 1991 Clark pled guilty to theft by a check and was confined to the county jail for 20 days, fined, and ordered to pay restitution. In 1992 Clark was convicted of burglary and received a 10-year sentence in prison, which is where he met Brown. On May 26, 1993, after serving only ten months of his sentence, Clark was granted parole
due to the problem of overcrowding in the Texas prison system. Two weeks later Clark and Brown were arrested for the Crews and Garza murders.
near Denton, Texas
and the following day their bodies were pulled from the water. Crews' body was discovered nude with a pair of shorts around her neck and her wrists bound with her own bra, she had been raped and had died from a shotgun wound to the back of her head. Garza had been also killed by a close range shotgun blast originating below his chin. Also recovered from the creek was a .22 rifle with the stock sawed off
and the murder weapon, a 12-gauge shotgun.
That same morning paramedics and police officers responded to a call of a gunshot victim at a local service station
. Upon arrival they found Brown with a serious shotgun wound to the leg, attended by Clark, who claimed they had been attacked by a robber who shot Brown while they were fishing at Three Rivers
Bridge. However, no evidence was found at that scene to support the claim of the crime or that anyone had been present on the location or fishing at that time. Both suspects were covered with white sand consistent with the banks of Clear Creek and confronted with this evidence Brown lead police to the body of Garza, which had not yet been located. Subsequent investigation discovered that Brown had actually shot himself at point-blank range
in the act of assaulting the teens.
Due to Clark and Brown's conflicting statements, a search warrant
was obtained to search the trailer Clark and Brown shared, in violation of their paroles, located in Aubrey, Texas
. There police discovered the stock to the sawed off rifle which was a match to the rifle in the found in the creek, as well as ammunition and evidence that, days prior to the murder, Clark and Brown had purchased ammunition for the murder weapon.
DNA
evidence provided by Clark matched evidence taken from Crews' body proving that Clark had sexually assaulted her. Additionally, blood determined to be that of Brown, Crews and Garza's was found splattered on Clark's shoes.
Both men were arrested at the Aubrey trailer after moderate resistance and ultimately admitted they had been at Clear Creek, first claiming they witnessed Garza shoot Crews, before they eventually admitted they had indeed robbed the teens, but, each blamed the other for the actual murders. Clark claimed that it was Brown who instigated the crime and shot himself using the rifle as a bludgeon
on Garza, after which he killed both teens. Brown countered that it was Clark who committed the murders. On September 12, 2000 the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would find in favor of Brown's version of the story on the grounds that with Brown's injury occurring prior to the murders Clark must have unloaded the spent cartridge and reloaded the shotgun.
. Clark filed an appeal asserting he had been denied effective assistance of counsel because his original trial
attorneys, Richard Podgorski and Henry Paine, made no opening arguments, called no witnesses for guilt or innocence in either the trial or penalty phase, nor did they perform adequate discovery
, having made no attempt to contact or interview any members of Clark's family or other relevant persons from his past. In fact, there is no evidence they even pursued these avenues despite the Supreme Court ruling, Wiggins v. Smith
(2003), that established standards for effective legal counsel, stating that counsel must perform a reasonable exploration of investigation in constituting defense strategy or risk creating an unconstitutional deprivation of rights to affective counsel.
Brown's trial for the murder of Garza was delayed due to the injury of his leg and at his trial he was depicted as appearing “young and defenseless as he sat at the defense table in a wheelchair”. Brown admitted to the robbery, however denied involvement in the murders, describing how he was shot in the act of trying to prevent the crime and expressed remorse for his acts. Ultimately, he was convicted of the only the robberies and sentenced to 20 years and has since been denied for parole twice.
On October 6, 1996 the court upheld James Lee Clark's conviction and sentence on direct appeal and on October 15, 1996 his trial attorneys informed Clark they would no longer represent him and were replaced by James Rasmussen. On April 19, 1997 Clark filed a writ of habeas corpus
with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
challenging the validity of his conviction and sentence asserting eleven grounds for relief, including his claim of ineffectual counsel. The courts denied his application on July 8, 1998 without ever holding an evidentiary hearing
, choosing instead to simply review the court records.
On July 27, 1998 Clark appealed this decision to the United States district court
which was denied on December 13, 1999, again without allowing discovery or an evidentiary hearing. January 12, 2000 he requested the district court review this decision, which was denied on January 28, 2000, including his petition to reexamine his claim of mental retardation being a mitigating circumstance
to the crimes.
After the landmark Supreme Court decision in Atkins v. Virginia
(2002), which outlawed the execution of persons deemed mentally retarded, Clark moved his sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not specifically outline exact definitions for "mental retardation" and suggested states follow the definition used by the American Association for Mental Retardation (which generally stated that an IQ less than 70 with two or more supporting limitations be used as the guideline) leaving ultimate decision to the individual states to decide. The State of Texas adopted two definitions, both of which contain the same three basic elements, that mental retardation was a disability characterized by "significantly subaverage" intellectual functioning, accompanied with "related limitations in adaptive functioning" and a documented onset of these characterizations prior to the age of 18. Further, they determined that in testing for retardation "scores gathered through intelligence testing are necessarily imprecise and must be interpreted flexibly." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Clark did not meet any of the three criteria for retardation and affirmed the lower court ruling to uphold his conviction and sentence. An execution date was set for November 21, 2002, however, on November 18, 2002 the execution was stayed pending further examination of Clark's assertion of being mentally retarded pursuant to the Atkins ruling.
In April 2003 Clark was assessed by clinical psychologist
Dr. George C. Denkowski, who had previously assessed four other post-Atkins cases and concluded only one of the four had clear mental retardation under the statutes. Denkowski performed a six-hour examination of Clark, administering the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
-III (WAIS-III) and the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS). Denkowski determined that Clark had an IQ of 65 and had adaptive skills deficits in the areas of health, safety, social and work, thus clearly falling under the restrictions set by the Atkins ruling.
Despite the fact that the Harris County Prosecutor cited Denkowski's expertise in upholding his findings in the other four cases, Denton County District Attorney Bruce Isaacks rejected the findings, fired Denkowski and hired Dr. Thomas Allen to assess the possibility that Clark was faking mental retardation.
After interviewing Clark for two hours and 16 minutes, during which Allen did not perform any standardized tests to determine Clark's IQ, Allen determined that Clark was indeed faking his retardation by intentionally presenting himself as less intelligent to avoid execution. He cited the fact that Clark's prison cell contained copies of newspaper articles, crossword puzzle
s and a copy of the Charles Dickens
book A Tale of Two Cities
. It was ultimately revealed that none of the puzzles had been completed, the articles were about the Atkins case and were simply sent to him from people outside the prison as gifts, finally, Clark had stated he never read the book.
The defense then hired their own doctor to do an assessment of Clark, choosing Dr. Denis Keyes, whose expert studies were cited in the actual Atkins ruling. Keyes examined Clark over two sessions lasting a total of seven and a half hours, administering the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test, the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale and found that Clark had an IQ of 68. Keyes stated he felt Clark's ability to behave appropriately for his age was "virtually nonexistent" and Keyes concluded that Clark not be executed citing both the Texas Mentally Retarded Persons Act and the Atkins ruling. Keyes stated, "Individuals with mental retardation typically have severe deficits in judgment potential, and are simply unable to understand the consequences of their behaviors. People with mental retardation have several characteristics; among these are defective intellectual capacity, shorter attention span
s, poor memory, poor planning ability, lack of ability to appreciate the consequences of their actions, severe learning problems, marked deficits in adaptive skill areas, and limited ability to learn from previous experience. James's background confirms problems with virtually every one of the above characteristics." Additionally, Keyes noted his support of Dendowski's findings calling them "credible and correct" and his opinion that Allen's assessment did not meet the legally required guidelines for diagnosis and ruling out a diagnosis, based on his failure to perform accepted standardized testing. Both Denkowski and Keyes rejected Allen's diagnosis and both agreed that Clark was not faking his mental retardation.
On November 17, 2003 a hearing, presided over by Judge Lee Gabriel, was held to examine this evidence. Gabriel, over defense objections, ruled that Clark would appear in court handcuffed, shackled, and wearing an electroshock stun belt, On November 20, after a three-day hearing, Gabriel rejected the findings of both Keyes and Denkowski and accepted those of Allen, ruling that Clark did not meet the legal standards for mental retardation. She cited a 1983 IQ test administered at the Gainesville State School indicating Clark's IQ at 74, stating that as it was given to Clark as a youth it was a more reliable standard as he had "no reason to fake results at that point." Dr. James R. Flynn
, an expert on changes in IQ scores over time (the Flynn effect
) wrote that "the best estimate" of Clark's 1983 in 2003 would be 68.57 (similar to what Keyes determined), and "it is almost certain that [Clark's IQ] is not 70 or above."
In further support of her ruling, Gabriel allowed and gave weight to testimony from untrained lay people whose statements were of anecdotal nature and unreliable. One such witness was Clark's former landlord, who readily admitted she had memory problems, who testified that she believed that Clark's ability to pay his own bills, barter chores for rent reduction and capacity to play card games similar to Uno, meant he could not be retarded. This was in direct conflict with the Texas Persons With Mental Retardation Act which dictates, “ 'Person with mental retardation' means a person determined by a physician or psychologist licensed in this state or certified by the department to have subaverage general intellectual functioning with deficits in adaptive behavior.' That is, only a licensed physician or psychologist may determine who's mentally retarded. Anecdotal information, or the opinions of untrained laypeople is not meaningful.” None-the-less, Judge Gabriel declared Clark fit for execution.
On January 20, 2005, the district court rendered final judgment denying the successive habeas corpus petition, which was overturned on March 16, 2005 when the district court granted Clark’s application for a certificate of appealability. However, on July 20, 2006, the 5th Circuit Court affirmed the judgment January 2005 ruling and denied habeas relief. On August 29, 2006, the court denied Clark’s petition for rehearing. Finally, on February 26, 2007, the Supreme Court denied Clark’s petition for writ of certiorari. The trial court reset his execution date for April 11, 2007 and on February 28, 2007 Judge Gabriel signed the execution order.
, Amnesty USA, Petitions Online, Urgent Action Network, Texas Moratorium Network and other Anti-Death Penalty groups.
On April 11, 2007, the day of the execution, the Steinway
piano that John Lennon
used to compose the 1971 song "Imagine
" was placed outside the front door of the prison as a protest to the execution, a sign of peace and statement that there is too much violence in the world.
That same day, Texas Governor Rick Perry
refused to commute the death sentence, two hours prior to the execution the Supreme Court denied a last minute appeal and at 6:17 PM, James Lee Clark was executed in the Walls Unit of Huntsville Prison
by means of lethal injection
. He requested no final meal. When asked if he had any final words he gave a nervous chuckle and stated, “Uh, I don’t know. Um, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know …” He then seemed to notice the witnesses in the gallery and added, “I didn’t know anybody was there,” he laughed again and said, “Howdy.” Upon which the lethal cocktail of medications were administered, Clark made a gurgling sound and became still.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
murderer whose controversial execution by the state of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
sparked international outcry as it was believed by many that his execution violated the U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
ruling in Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia, , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments.-The case:...
(2002)
which held that executions of mentally retarded
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
criminals is cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person...
prohibited by the Eighth Amendment
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
.
Clark and his accomplice
Accomplice
At law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even though they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller and asks for the money is guilty of armed robbery...
, James Richard Brown, were charged with capital murder
Capital punishment in Texas
Capital punishment has been used in the U.S. state of Texas and its predecessor entities since 1819.As of 16 November 2011, 1,228 individuals have been executed. Only Virginia has executed more individuals overall; however, since the death penalty was re-instituted in the United States in the...
for the June 7, 1993 robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of 17-year-old Shari Catherine "Cari" Crews in Denton County, Texas
Denton County, Texas
Denton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 432,976; in 2009 the estimated population had reached 628,300. Part of the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex, it is one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. The county seat is Denton. The county...
. Also killed was 16 year old Jesus Garza for whom both Clark and Brown were charged with murder, however, Clark was never tried for this case. Brown was also charged with capital murder but a jury found him guilty of only the robbery charge and was sentenced to 20 years.
Early life
Clark was born in Caddo Parish, LouisianaCaddo Parish, Louisiana
Caddo Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Shreveport; as of 2000, the population was 252,161...
. Court documents revealed that his father disappeared the day he found out Clark's mother was pregnant. Testimony from a psychologist at his appeals hearing stated that Clark told him he had his first drink when he was seven years old and was commonly drunk by the age of 13, at which point he also began to smoke cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
regularly. After failing two grades and being placed in special education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
classes he dropped out of school in the ninth grade
Ninth grade
Ninth grade is the ninth post-kindergarten year of school education in some school systems. The students are 13 to 15 years of age, depending on when their birthday occurs. Depending on the school district, ninth grade is usually the first year of high school....
.
At the age of 15 he was remanded into the Gainesville State School, a reformatory
Reformatory
Reformatory is a term that has had varied meanings within the penal system, depending on the jurisdiction and the era. It may refer to a youth detention center, or an adult correctional facility. The term is still in popular use for adult facilities throughout the United States, although most...
for boys and girls in Gainesville, Texas
Gainesville, Texas
Gainesville is a city in and the county seat of Cooke County, Texas, United States. The population was 15,538 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, for auto theft
Motor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...
. At that time his mother told the Texas Youth Commission
Texas Youth Commission
The Texas Youth Commission is a Texas state agency which operates juvenile corrections facilities in the state. The commission is headquartered in the Brown-Heatly Building in Austin...
that “has no friends in school ... because he steals from them all.” and Clark was subsequently diagnosed as having a “conduct disorder, associated with psychological deprivation, coupled with features of immature personality.” At the Gainesville State School, Clark was able to complete his GED
GED
General Educational Development tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skills...
and was released at the age of 18 to find his mother had abandoned him, wanting nothing more to do with him.
Criminal history
In 1989 Clark was convicted of felonyFelony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
of a building and incarcerated in state prison. In 1991 Clark pled guilty to theft by a check and was confined to the county jail for 20 days, fined, and ordered to pay restitution. In 1992 Clark was convicted of burglary and received a 10-year sentence in prison, which is where he met Brown. On May 26, 1993, after serving only ten months of his sentence, Clark was granted parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
due to the problem of overcrowding in the Texas prison system. Two weeks later Clark and Brown were arrested for the Crews and Garza murders.
Murder of Catherine Crews and Jesus Garza
On June 4, 1993, Clark and Brown participated in breaking into vehicles and stole a shotgun and a rifle and went in search of someone to rob. In the early morning hours of June 7, 1993 they came upon Crews and Garza at Clear CreekClear Creek
-Hydronyms:*Clear Creek , a tributary of the Nenana River*Clear Creek , a creek in the Grand Canyon*Clear Creek , a tributary of the South Platte River and the cradle of the Colorado Gold Rush...
near Denton, Texas
Denton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
and the following day their bodies were pulled from the water. Crews' body was discovered nude with a pair of shorts around her neck and her wrists bound with her own bra, she had been raped and had died from a shotgun wound to the back of her head. Garza had been also killed by a close range shotgun blast originating below his chin. Also recovered from the creek was a .22 rifle with the stock sawed off
Sawed-off shotgun
A sawed-off shotgun also called a sawn-off shotgun and a short-barreled shotgun , is a type of shotgun with a shorter gun barrel and often a shorter or absent stock....
and the murder weapon, a 12-gauge shotgun.
That same morning paramedics and police officers responded to a call of a gunshot victim at a local service station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
. Upon arrival they found Brown with a serious shotgun wound to the leg, attended by Clark, who claimed they had been attacked by a robber who shot Brown while they were fishing at Three Rivers
Three Rivers, Texas
Three Rivers is a city in Live Oak County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,878 at the 2000 census.The city is named for its proximity to three rivers, the Atascosa River, the Frio River, and the Nueces River...
Bridge. However, no evidence was found at that scene to support the claim of the crime or that anyone had been present on the location or fishing at that time. Both suspects were covered with white sand consistent with the banks of Clear Creek and confronted with this evidence Brown lead police to the body of Garza, which had not yet been located. Subsequent investigation discovered that Brown had actually shot himself at point-blank range
Point-blank range
In external ballistics, point-blank range is the distance between a firearm and a target of a given size such that the bullet in flight is expected to strike the target without adjusting the elevation of the firearm. The point-blank range will vary with the firearm and its particular ballistic...
in the act of assaulting the teens.
Due to Clark and Brown's conflicting statements, a search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
was obtained to search the trailer Clark and Brown shared, in violation of their paroles, located in Aubrey, Texas
Aubrey, Texas
Aubrey is a city in Denton County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,500 at the 2000 census.-History:In 1847 the community was named Onega and the Cherokee people were the main inhabitants. Historically it was known for the peanut farms that surrounded the town. By 2009 horse ranches...
. There police discovered the stock to the sawed off rifle which was a match to the rifle in the found in the creek, as well as ammunition and evidence that, days prior to the murder, Clark and Brown had purchased ammunition for the murder weapon.
DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
evidence provided by Clark matched evidence taken from Crews' body proving that Clark had sexually assaulted her. Additionally, blood determined to be that of Brown, Crews and Garza's was found splattered on Clark's shoes.
Both men were arrested at the Aubrey trailer after moderate resistance and ultimately admitted they had been at Clear Creek, first claiming they witnessed Garza shoot Crews, before they eventually admitted they had indeed robbed the teens, but, each blamed the other for the actual murders. Clark claimed that it was Brown who instigated the crime and shot himself using the rifle as a bludgeon
Bludgeon
Bludgeon may refer to:* Bludgeon , a fictional character* Bludgeon , a club-like weapon* Crabtree's Bludgeon, a foil to Occam's Razor...
on Garza, after which he killed both teens. Brown countered that it was Clark who committed the murders. On September 12, 2000 the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would find in favor of Brown's version of the story on the grounds that with Brown's injury occurring prior to the murders Clark must have unloaded the spent cartridge and reloaded the shotgun.
Conviction and Appeals
On April 29, 1994, a jury in Denton County convicted James Lee Clark of robbery and the murder and rape of Crews, and on May 3, 1994 Judge Sam Houston sentenced Clark to deathCapital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. Clark filed an appeal asserting he had been denied effective assistance of counsel because his original trial
Trial court
A trial court or court of first instance is a court in which trials take place. Such courts are said to have original jurisdiction.- In the United States :...
attorneys, Richard Podgorski and Henry Paine, made no opening arguments, called no witnesses for guilt or innocence in either the trial or penalty phase, nor did they perform adequate discovery
Discovery (law)
In U.S.law, discovery is the pre-trial phase in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the opposing party by means of discovery devices including requests for answers to interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for...
, having made no attempt to contact or interview any members of Clark's family or other relevant persons from his past. In fact, there is no evidence they even pursued these avenues despite the Supreme Court ruling, Wiggins v. Smith
Wiggins v. Smith
Wiggins v. Smith, is a case in which the United States Supreme Court spelled out standards for "effectiveness" in the constitutional right to legal counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment...
(2003), that established standards for effective legal counsel, stating that counsel must perform a reasonable exploration of investigation in constituting defense strategy or risk creating an unconstitutional deprivation of rights to affective counsel.
Brown's trial for the murder of Garza was delayed due to the injury of his leg and at his trial he was depicted as appearing “young and defenseless as he sat at the defense table in a wheelchair”. Brown admitted to the robbery, however denied involvement in the murders, describing how he was shot in the act of trying to prevent the crime and expressed remorse for his acts. Ultimately, he was convicted of the only the robberies and sentenced to 20 years and has since been denied for parole twice.
On October 6, 1996 the court upheld James Lee Clark's conviction and sentence on direct appeal and on October 15, 1996 his trial attorneys informed Clark they would no longer represent him and were replaced by James Rasmussen. On April 19, 1997 Clark filed a writ of habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in the State of Texas, United States. The Court, which is based in the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Austin, is composed of a Presiding Judge and eight judges....
challenging the validity of his conviction and sentence asserting eleven grounds for relief, including his claim of ineffectual counsel. The courts denied his application on July 8, 1998 without ever holding an evidentiary hearing
Preliminary hearing
Within some criminal justice systems, a preliminary hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecutor, to determine whether there is enough evidence to require a trial...
, choosing instead to simply review the court records.
On July 27, 1998 Clark appealed this decision to the United States district court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
which was denied on December 13, 1999, again without allowing discovery or an evidentiary hearing. January 12, 2000 he requested the district court review this decision, which was denied on January 28, 2000, including his petition to reexamine his claim of mental retardation being a mitigating circumstance
Extenuating circumstances
In law, extenuating circumstances in criminal cases are unusual or extreme facts leading up to or attending the commission of the offense which, though an offense has been committed without legal justification or excuse, mitigate or reduce its gravity from the point of view of punishment or moral...
to the crimes.
After the landmark Supreme Court decision in Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia
Atkins v. Virginia, , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments.-The case:...
(2002), which outlawed the execution of persons deemed mentally retarded, Clark moved his sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not specifically outline exact definitions for "mental retardation" and suggested states follow the definition used by the American Association for Mental Retardation (which generally stated that an IQ less than 70 with two or more supporting limitations be used as the guideline) leaving ultimate decision to the individual states to decide. The State of Texas adopted two definitions, both of which contain the same three basic elements, that mental retardation was a disability characterized by "significantly subaverage" intellectual functioning, accompanied with "related limitations in adaptive functioning" and a documented onset of these characterizations prior to the age of 18. Further, they determined that in testing for retardation "scores gathered through intelligence testing are necessarily imprecise and must be interpreted flexibly." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Clark did not meet any of the three criteria for retardation and affirmed the lower court ruling to uphold his conviction and sentence. An execution date was set for November 21, 2002, however, on November 18, 2002 the execution was stayed pending further examination of Clark's assertion of being mentally retarded pursuant to the Atkins ruling.
In April 2003 Clark was assessed by clinical psychologist
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
Dr. George C. Denkowski, who had previously assessed four other post-Atkins cases and concluded only one of the four had clear mental retardation under the statutes. Denkowski performed a six-hour examination of Clark, administering the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale intelligence quotient tests are the primary clinical instruments used to measure adult and adolescent intelligence. The original WAIS was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale...
-III (WAIS-III) and the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS). Denkowski determined that Clark had an IQ of 65 and had adaptive skills deficits in the areas of health, safety, social and work, thus clearly falling under the restrictions set by the Atkins ruling.
Despite the fact that the Harris County Prosecutor cited Denkowski's expertise in upholding his findings in the other four cases, Denton County District Attorney Bruce Isaacks rejected the findings, fired Denkowski and hired Dr. Thomas Allen to assess the possibility that Clark was faking mental retardation.
After interviewing Clark for two hours and 16 minutes, during which Allen did not perform any standardized tests to determine Clark's IQ, Allen determined that Clark was indeed faking his retardation by intentionally presenting himself as less intelligent to avoid execution. He cited the fact that Clark's prison cell contained copies of newspaper articles, crossword puzzle
Crossword Puzzle
For the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
s and a copy of the Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
book A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
. It was ultimately revealed that none of the puzzles had been completed, the articles were about the Atkins case and were simply sent to him from people outside the prison as gifts, finally, Clark had stated he never read the book.
The defense then hired their own doctor to do an assessment of Clark, choosing Dr. Denis Keyes, whose expert studies were cited in the actual Atkins ruling. Keyes examined Clark over two sessions lasting a total of seven and a half hours, administering the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test, the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale and found that Clark had an IQ of 68. Keyes stated he felt Clark's ability to behave appropriately for his age was "virtually nonexistent" and Keyes concluded that Clark not be executed citing both the Texas Mentally Retarded Persons Act and the Atkins ruling. Keyes stated, "Individuals with mental retardation typically have severe deficits in judgment potential, and are simply unable to understand the consequences of their behaviors. People with mental retardation have several characteristics; among these are defective intellectual capacity, shorter attention span
Attention span
Attention span is the amount of time that a person can concentrate on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus one's attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one's goals....
s, poor memory, poor planning ability, lack of ability to appreciate the consequences of their actions, severe learning problems, marked deficits in adaptive skill areas, and limited ability to learn from previous experience. James's background confirms problems with virtually every one of the above characteristics." Additionally, Keyes noted his support of Dendowski's findings calling them "credible and correct" and his opinion that Allen's assessment did not meet the legally required guidelines for diagnosis and ruling out a diagnosis, based on his failure to perform accepted standardized testing. Both Denkowski and Keyes rejected Allen's diagnosis and both agreed that Clark was not faking his mental retardation.
On November 17, 2003 a hearing, presided over by Judge Lee Gabriel, was held to examine this evidence. Gabriel, over defense objections, ruled that Clark would appear in court handcuffed, shackled, and wearing an electroshock stun belt, On November 20, after a three-day hearing, Gabriel rejected the findings of both Keyes and Denkowski and accepted those of Allen, ruling that Clark did not meet the legal standards for mental retardation. She cited a 1983 IQ test administered at the Gainesville State School indicating Clark's IQ at 74, stating that as it was given to Clark as a youth it was a more reliable standard as he had "no reason to fake results at that point." Dr. James R. Flynn
James R. Flynn
James Robert Flynn PhD FRSNZ , aka Jim Flynn, Emeritus Professor of Political Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, researches intelligence and has become well known for his discovery of the Flynn effect, the continued year-after-year increase of IQ scores in all parts of the...
, an expert on changes in IQ scores over time (the Flynn effect
Flynn effect
The Flynn effect is the name given to a substantial and long-sustained increase in intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world. When intelligence quotient tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100...
) wrote that "the best estimate" of Clark's 1983 in 2003 would be 68.57 (similar to what Keyes determined), and "it is almost certain that [Clark's IQ] is not 70 or above."
In further support of her ruling, Gabriel allowed and gave weight to testimony from untrained lay people whose statements were of anecdotal nature and unreliable. One such witness was Clark's former landlord, who readily admitted she had memory problems, who testified that she believed that Clark's ability to pay his own bills, barter chores for rent reduction and capacity to play card games similar to Uno, meant he could not be retarded. This was in direct conflict with the Texas Persons With Mental Retardation Act which dictates, “ 'Person with mental retardation' means a person determined by a physician or psychologist licensed in this state or certified by the department to have subaverage general intellectual functioning with deficits in adaptive behavior.' That is, only a licensed physician or psychologist may determine who's mentally retarded. Anecdotal information, or the opinions of untrained laypeople is not meaningful.” None-the-less, Judge Gabriel declared Clark fit for execution.
On January 20, 2005, the district court rendered final judgment denying the successive habeas corpus petition, which was overturned on March 16, 2005 when the district court granted Clark’s application for a certificate of appealability. However, on July 20, 2006, the 5th Circuit Court affirmed the judgment January 2005 ruling and denied habeas relief. On August 29, 2006, the court denied Clark’s petition for rehearing. Finally, on February 26, 2007, the Supreme Court denied Clark’s petition for writ of certiorari. The trial court reset his execution date for April 11, 2007 and on February 28, 2007 Judge Gabriel signed the execution order.
Execution
The case drew international attention and campaigns to stop the execution were waged by Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Amnesty USA, Petitions Online, Urgent Action Network, Texas Moratorium Network and other Anti-Death Penalty groups.
On April 11, 2007, the day of the execution, the Steinway
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
piano that John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
used to compose the 1971 song "Imagine
Imagine (song)
"Imagine" is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971...
" was placed outside the front door of the prison as a protest to the execution, a sign of peace and statement that there is too much violence in the world.
That same day, Texas Governor Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...
refused to commute the death sentence, two hours prior to the execution the Supreme Court denied a last minute appeal and at 6:17 PM, James Lee Clark was executed in the Walls Unit of Huntsville Prison
Huntsville Prison
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit , nicknamed "Walls Unit," is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near Downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal...
by means of lethal injection
Lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...
. He requested no final meal. When asked if he had any final words he gave a nervous chuckle and stated, “Uh, I don’t know. Um, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know …” He then seemed to notice the witnesses in the gallery and added, “I didn’t know anybody was there,” he laughed again and said, “Howdy.” Upon which the lethal cocktail of medications were administered, Clark made a gurgling sound and became still.