WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday it would hear an appeal by a Texas death-row inmate and a convicted murderer said to be so mentally retarded he still believes in Santa Claus.The high court agreed to use the case of Johnny Paul Penry to clarify how much opportunity jurors in death penalty cases must have to consider the defendant's mental capacity.
The Supreme Court, on Nov. 16, gave Penry, who was convicted in the 1979 rape and murder of Pamela Carpenter, 22, in the east Texas town of Livingston, a last-minute reprieve so it could consider whether to hear his appeal.
Penry is supposed to have an IQ between 50 and 63, which is below the 70 required for normal intelligence, and has said he still believes in Santa Claus, according to his lawyers.
Prosecutors have argued that Penry, 44, who confessed to the crime, is a sociopath pretending to be retarded.
He was convicted of killing Carpenter, the sister of former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley, with her own pair of scissors after forcing his way into her home and raping her. He was out on probation for a 1977 rape at the time.
Groups opposed to the death penalty, such as Amnesty International, took up Penry's cause, saying those who are retarded should not be executed because they are not fully responsible for their actions.
In appealing to the Supreme Court, Penry's lawyers argued the jury that sentenced him to death was not properly instructed to consider his mental capacity and did not consider the ``horrific'' abuse he suffered from his mother as a child.
Penry's lawyers said the jury was given confusing instructions by the judge on how to assess evidence that might have mitigated a death sentence.
It will be the second time the Supreme Court will decide Penry's case.
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that juries in capital murder trials must be allowed to weigh evidence of mental retardation. It also ruled that executing the mentally retarded does not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The high court, in its 1989 decision, threw out Penry's conviction and ordered a new trial. Penry then was retried, convicted and again sentenced to death in 1990.
The justices will hear arguments in Penry's latest appeal next year, with a decision due by the end of June.
