Inmate Stuck on US Death Row Despite Overturned Death Penalty NASCAR and racing news

But four years later, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have not transferred him to a less restrictive unit or another prison.

Why? His own attorney, who scored a rare legal victory when he convinced a court to overturn Webster’s 1996 death sentence for kidnapping, raping and murdering a 16-year-old Texas girl, says she’s baffled.

“How can I not get this guy off death row?” said an angry Monica Foster in a recent interview. “Well, I got him off death row. But why can’t I physically get him off death row?”

When asked about Webster’s continued incarceration on death row, a Justice Department official said only that “the Bureau of Prisons is considering the decision to commit Mr. Webster.”

Webster’s case illustrates the chronic bureaucracy in the prison system and the difficulties of getting someone off death row. Given the nature of inmate crimes, there is sometimes an added reluctance to act in death row cases.

In Webster’s case, he and three accomplices kidnapped the sister of a rival drug dealer in 1994 and kicked their way into an apartment in Arlington, Texas while Lisa Rene frantically dialed 911. They raped her for two days, stripped her and beat her with clubs and a shovel, and buried her alive.

Several death row inmates emailed The Associated Press that Peters came through their unit on Tuesday and spoke to some prisoners. It is unknown if she saw Webster or discussed his case.

“This case is a no-brainer,” said the Indianapolis-based federal defense attorney. “There is no political responsibility for doing the right thing here and getting him off death row.”

Webster, who wants to be transferred to a prison near his hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, faces retrial. It’s meant to be a formality, as life imprisonment is the only available sentence.

When his attorneys and the Justice Department petitioned a US judge in Texas, where Webster was tried in 1996, in a joint 2021 motion to tease him, the judge refused, saying he had no jurisdiction.

Judge Terry Means also rebuked his Indiana counterpart, Judge William Lawrence, for overturning Webster’s death sentence, saying Lawrence “pushed aside” the jury’s finding, including most of Webster’s dismissed claims of intellectual disability.

“This verdict is final,” the government said of Means’ verdict, adding that it was the Department’s position “that Mr Webster is not currently under a valid death sentence.”

Responsibility for getting Webster off death row rests directly with the Justice Department, Foster said.

Lawrence based his Webster ruling on Atkins v. Virginia, a landmark 2002 Supreme Court decision that found the execution of people with intellectual disabilities violated Eighth Amendment protections against “cruel and unusual” punishment .

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, this decision did not prevent some inmates with such disabilities from being executed. It identifies 25 cases where this has happened since that ruling, including two federal inmates executed under Trump, Alfred Bourgeois and Corey Johnson.

Whether Webster qualified as intellectually disabled focused on three questions: Was his IQ significantly below average, did he demonstrate an inability to learn basic skills, and was the onset of the disability apparent before age 18?

In his ruling, Lawrence cited tests that put Webster’s IQ between 50 and 65, below the intellectual disability benchmark score of 70. The average is 100.

During the altercations, Webster’s attorneys said that he relied on others to tie his shoes well into his childhood and had trouble playing cards as a teenager because he could not distinguish between clubs and spades.

Prosecutors accused Webster of playing dumb. They said he intentionally got IQ questions wrong to avoid the death penalty. They said evidence of his talent was that while in prison he figured out how to pick locks on a food chute to get into a women’s section.

“Webster was also able to keep a job, albeit of a criminal nature,” added a government filing. “Being a successful drug dealer is no less demanding than having a string of legitimate jobs.”

The crucial evidence, however, was newly obtained Social Security records from before the murder, which suggested Webster’s IQ was in the range of the mentally retarded. This evidence was not made available despite requests during his trial.

Foster worries about what might happen if Webster doesn’t get off death row soon. Although previous verdicts should prevent that from happening, she worries that if Trump wins the presidency, his administration may seek to restore the death sentence.

When that happens, she said, “I worry it might go ahead.”

Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at @mtarm.