Court orders tests for inmate, reopening chance of execution

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Mississippi Supreme Court says an inmate convicted of killing a prison guard must be re-evaluated to determine whether he is too intellectually disabled for the death penalty, reopening the possibility he will be executed.

In a 5-4 ruling Thursday, justices ordered a fresh evaluation of Willie Russell, originally sentenced to death for stabbing and killing prison guard Argentra Cotton in 1989 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

A Sunflower County judge set aside Russell’s death sentence, finding he is too low-functioning to be executed under a U.S. Supreme Court case banning capital punishment in such instances. But the majority finds that Circuit Judge Betty Sanders was wrong, saying additional evaluation is needed. The four-justice minority says there’s been enough testing, which could have allowed Russell’s commutation to stand.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)