The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Wright's appeals in July. He is scheduled to be executed by injection on Oct. 14. Anderson wrote Gilmore that Wright was not only a minor when he killed Ms. Tekle but also is mentally ill and borderline retarded. Doctors said Wright had psychotic episodes that could be controlled with appropriate medication and counseling, according to an ABA statement accompanying Anderson's letter. Ray Morrogh, deputy commonwealth's attorney for Fairfax County, said Wright has low-average intelligence but is not mentally retarded.
Defense attorneys are fond of referring to that state as being borderline retarded.
Whether he was 17 or 27, he murdered 3 people in 1 week. It was an atrociously brutal crime. The Chicago-based ABA represents more than 400,000 lawyers, judges and law professors. The association has never taken a position for or against capital punishment. But it has called for a moratorium on executions pending further study of the death penalty's fairness and for halting executions involving juveniles and the mentally ill, ABA spokeswoman Diane Carr said Thursday.