Lawyers at Linklaters have helped an intellectually disabled man avoid execution in Texas. 

Solicitors at the firm, together with peers at Skadden Arps and arbitration specialist Three Crowns, acted pro bono for Bobby Moore, who was convicted after he shot and killed a man in a hold-up gone wrong in 1980. Moore, who has an IQ of less than 75, has spent 37 years on death row and the last 15 years in solitary confinement. He spends at least 22.5 hours a day in his cell and is allowed no physical human contact.

  Texas, where having a face visible from the front and the side constitutes evidence of a fit mental state.

A team led by Links disputes resolution partner Ben Carroll and associate Kimmie Fearnside submitted a brief as part of Moore's appeal which established that the Texas Criminal Appeals Court's test to identify intellectual disability was outrageously out-of-date. Working on behalf of medical organisations including the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the World Psychiatric Association, the lawyers conducted research which demonstrated that, unlike Texas, not one of 25 other jurisdictions and four international courts used tests which the medical community considered to be out-of-date.

Last week the Supreme Court found that the Texan method for determining which defendants were intellectually disabled violated the US constitution. In the US it is also unconstitutional to execute prisoners with an intellectual disability, and so Moore's case has been vacated and remanded for further proceedings. Carroll said, “We are delighted that Mr Moore’s appeal was successful and are happy to have made a small contribution to this”. Lucy Martinez, counsel at Three Crowns, said, "This is a great victory for Mr Moore. We are proud to have played a role in a case that raised such an important point of legal principle”. 
Tip Off ROF

Comments