In a move that could have long-lasting ramifications for Indiana's criminal justice system, a Lawrenceburg judge denied Tommy Pruitt's request for a new trial Friday. This clears the way for Pruitt to face the death penalty for the murder of a Morgan County sheriff's deputy in 2001.
Pruitt has an IQ which has been tested at between 52 and 81. His attorneys have asserted since his original trial that he is mentally retarded and thus should not face execution for his crime.
Pruitt has been here before.
In 2005 the Indiana Supreme Court issued a 4-1 decision denying him a new trial, arguing that despite his IQ he hadn't proven he was mentally impaired enough to be spared.
Justice Robert D. Rucker argued in a dissenting opinion that "it is clear ... that Pruitt is mentally retarded even under a standard requiring proof by clear and convincing evidence." Since the Court overturned Indiana's "clear and convincing evidence" statute as part of the ruling in Pruitt's case, Rucker argued, the case should have been remanded to the trial court with instructions to sentence Pruitt to a term of years.
That never happened. Two years later, justice again was not served in Pruitt's case.
Pruitt committed a terrible crime. I'm not going to deny that.
Pruitt was found guilty of shooting Morgan County Deputy Daniel Stairnes on June 14, 2001. Prosecutors argued he ambushed Stairnes, laying in wait with a police scanner and a cache of guns before shooting Stairnes and his son, who was an intern with the sheriff's department at the time.
If Pruitt is, however, mentally retarded, by law the state should not be able to execute him for a crime he committed but did not understand. Atkins v. Virginia stands as precedent that execution of the mentally retarded is cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment.
Stairnes' own son noted in a wishtv.com article after the trial that "[Pruitt] looked like he was kind of bobbing his head up and down. He was ready for the courtroom to be over. He was watching the clock."
A week later, WTHR-13 would report that, during the death penalty phase of his trial, Pruitt sat motionless, failed to react to the verdict and said absolutely nothing, just as he had during the trial.
"Tommy being Tommy, I am not sure he understands it," said Pruitt's attorney Bill Van Der Pol.
Execution of the mentally retarded is nothing new. Before the precedent of Atkins, Mario Marquez was executed in Texas when his lawyer wasn't able to raise evidence of his 65 IQ at trial. And in 1999, Earl Washington, who had a 69 IQ, was pardoned in Virginia when DNA evidence proved his innocence. He'd spent 16 years in prison because he confessed to a crime he never committed.
In what sense are any of these cases "justice being done?"
We should focus now on Pruitt's case and wonder what good could possibly be served by executing a man who can't even understand he committed a crime.
At the very least he deserves to have his death sentence commuted to a term of years in prison.
Write to Jonathan at jonathansanders@justice.com
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