Psychologist's Reprimand Gives Hope to Counsel for Death Row Inmates
In a closely watched case, lawyers for death row inmates who were cleared for trial by a Texas psychologist reprimanded for his methods are hopeful their clients will avoid lethal injection.
The Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists has reprimanded Dr. George Denkowski, whose intellectual competency testing methods have been criticized as unscientific, the New York Times reports.
Denkowski, who examined 14 inmates who are now on Texas’ Death Row and two others who were subsequently executed, agreed on Thursday never to perform his intellectual disability evaluations again. He also agreed to pay a $5,500 fine in exchange for the board dismissing complaints about him.
Denkowski, who believed traditional tests didn’t compensate for social and cultural factors, has been criticized by other psychologists for using methods that they say artificially inflated intelligence scores to make defendants eligible for the death penalty.
One death row inmate’s sentence has already been commuted to life, after a state judge questioned Denkowski’s methods in 2007. In another case, a federal appeals court has stayed an execution, pending the outcome of complaints against Denkowski.
State Senator Rodney Ellis, who chairs the state’s Innocence Project board and is a member of the Criminal Justice Committee, tells the Times that every case involving Denkowski should be reviewed.
“We cannot simply shrug our shoulders and sit by and watch while the state uses legal technicalities to execute these intellectually disabled men,” Mr. Ellis is quoted saying, “especially on the word of someone who is no longer permitted to make these kinds of determinations.”
Related coverage:
Texas Observer: “Cracked: Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ban, Texas has continued to send mentally retarded criminals to death row. Will a Mexican immigrant’s case correct this injustice?”
