Human Rights Watch writes to urge you to sign legislation passed by the Texas legislature that would prohibit the state of Texas from executing capital offenders with mental retardation. Current state laws are inadequate to ensure that people whose cognitive development is impaired by retardation and who have the mental capacity and moral development of children are spared the death penalty.

If you sign the bill before you, Texas will add its voice to the increasingly strong national consensus that executing the mentally retarded is inconsistent with basic standards of decency and fair criminal justice systems.

As you may know, more mentally retarded persons are known to have been executed in Texas than in any other state. Public opinion polls in Texas - as elsewhere in the nation - reveal that even supporters of the death penalty believe executing the mentally retarded is wrong.

As you know, in the pending case of McCarver v. North Carolina the Supreme Court has been asked to overturn its 1989 decision in Penry v. Lynaugh holding that the Eighth Amendment did not forbid application of the death penalty to mentally retarded offenders because there was no "national consensus" against such executions. At the time of the Penry decision, only two states outlawed such executions. If Texas' bill becomes law, the Court will confront a dramatically different situation in which defendants with mental retardation will not face the death penalty in at least twenty-seven states.

Regardless of how the Supreme Court ultimately rules in McCarver, no purpose would be served by delaying action now on the Texas bill. No constitutional decision by the Court would prevent Texas from enacting the proposed legislation. You would still have the obligation to help bring your state laws up to the highest moral standard even if the constitution is not deemed to require it.

Our report, "Beyond Reason: The Death Penalty and Offenders with Mental Retardation," (copy enclosed), documents the many ways justice is denied when mentally retarded offenders are tried and sentenced for capital crimes. We hope this report will help convince you there can be no justification for the execution of such persons. If the state would not countenance the execution of a seven-year-old child, how can it permit the execution of an adult with the mind of a seven-year-old? Retribution becomes mindless vengeance when imposed on people with a limited ability to understand what they have done. Accountability and public safety can be secured through punishment short of death.

Sincerely,