As noted in my post yesterday, the claim that the perpetrator was retarded was disproved by the pre-Atkins IQ tests of 78, 80, 86, and 83. They average 81.75, far above the retardation threshold of 70, and even the lowest score exceeds the threshold by more than the margin of error. As Steve Erickson explained, the post-Atkins score of 68 has far less probative value. The AP story says, "Tests administered to Woods put his IQ anywhere from the 60s to the 80s. An IQ of 70 is considered the threshold for mental impairment."
"I'm not a person that likes harm done to anybody, but I believe in justice being done," Larry Patterson said after watching his daughter's killer die. "She had no choice. She didn't get a second chance."
* * *At his trial, [Sarah' brother] Cody Patterson testified Woods attacked him, and prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence implicating Woods in Sarah's killing, including signed confessions.
"I put this behind me a lot of years ago," said Cody Patterson, now 21, who stood outside the prison and chose not to see Woods die. "It has been a long time coming. I'm glad to know it's done. I knew it was going to be done sooner or later.
"I seen his picture... That's all I wanted to see," he said, adding that he recovered from his injuries and that nightmares about the attack have stopped, but that he still had "the scars on the back of my head."
Cody was 9 at the time of the crime.
Supreme Court orders denying stays, certiorari, and original habeas are here, here, and here. In the middle one, Justice Sotomayor alone would have granted the stay. Not a good sign, but we still await her first actual opinion in a capital case. She has not dissented in any of the four per curiam capital dispositions this term, two of which have gone for the defendant and two for the prosecution.
Leave a comment