THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 17, 1995 TAG: 9501170302
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution early today of a killer whose lawyers said should be spared because he is retarded.
Mario Marquez, 36, was to die by injection just after 1 a.m. for the 1984 rape and strangling of a 14-year-old niece. He also was accused of raping and strangling his estranged wife in the attack; he was never tried for that crime.
Lawyers for Marquez - a sixth-grade dropout with an IQ of 65 - argued that retarded people should not be put to death. They said Marquez was beaten with sticks, boards and whips by a father who thought he was ``slow.'' Once abandoned to the streets at age 12, he turned to sniffing paint and doing drugs.
Edwin Springer, who prosecuted Marquez, countered: ``He wasn't so mentally retarded he didn't know right from wrong. He's very dangerous individual. I have no reservations. I have no doubts.''
The Supreme Court rejected the appeal without comment and without any recorded dissent.
In 1989, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, said the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment does not prohibit the execution of juveniles as young as 16 or adults with the reasoning capacity of children.
KEYWORDS: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT U.S. SUPREME COURT RETARDED by CNB