An Arkansas death-row inmate convicted in the 1997 shotgun slayings of two store clerks likely will be spared from execution after a state-hired expert determined the man to be mentally disabled, the attorney general's office said Friday.
Sedrice Maurice Simpson, 37, was convicted in the killings of Wendy Pennington and Lena Garner during a crack-cocaine-fueled robbery at a grocery store in rural Dallas County. Over the objections of the victims' families, the attorney general's office has decided to file a joint motion with Simpson's defense lawyer that is likely to get him off death row and land him in prison for life without the possibility of parole.
"Mr. Simpson's crimes were horrible, heinous crimes for which he should be punished," said Justin Allen, the state's chief deputy attorney general. But "this is the appropriate outcome in this case. If we didn't believe it was, we would go to court and we would fight it and try to uphold the death sentence."
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, whose decision to sign off on the motion was first reported by The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was not available for comment Friday, a spokesman said.
Simpson was 25 when he and Ezekiel Harrison robbed the H&H Grocery in Holly Springs in the early morning hours of June 20, 1997. Simpson later told authorities he and Harrison had smoking crack cocaine all night. During the robbery, the two clerks were fatally shot with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Harrison and Simpson implicated each other. Simpson later allegedly told friend Frederick Wright that he "offed" the two women and had bloodstained dollar bills with him.
Harrison pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was paroled in February.
At trial, Simpson's lawyer never suggested his client might be mentally disabled, and a state psychologist described Simpson in a pretrial evaluation as "currently able to understand rationally and factually the legal proceedings against him."
A federal appeals court in St. Louis, however, ordered Simpson's mental competency be evaluated in 2007.
Allen, the assistant attorney general, said Simpson's IQ fell below 65, which would make it illegal under state law for officials to execute him.
"When the state's own expert says he's mentally retarded, there's not a whole lot of decision left to be made," Allen said.
A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision also bars the execution of a mentally disabled person.
Simpson's lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig, did not immediately return a phone message Friday seeking comment.
Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, said the governor was told ahead of time of McDaniel's decision and did not object.
"It's up to the attorney general to interpret the laws as far as they relate to the death penalty," DeCample said.
Simpson would be the second Arkansas inmate to leave death row on the grounds of a mental disability. Raphael Camargo saw his death sentence eliminated in 2004 under a similar set of circumstances.
About a dozen other death-row inmates have similar claims working through the courts, Allen said. He acknowledged Simpson's case likely would open the door to other identical cases.
"We're going to see a lot of these challenges," Allen said. "We're going to be dealing with this for years to come."
For more information see Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.