Court Opinion

ID: 9592464
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:14:34.461578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:05:58.865062
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice Exum
concurring in the result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority on both the guilt-innocence proceeding and the capital sentencing proceeding. I write separately to address defendant’s contention that to impose the death penalty upon him is violative of the State constitution because he is mentally retarded. Had the evidence that defendant was mentally retarded been uncontradicted and manifestly credible, then I believe a strong argument could have been made that to execute defendant would violate our State’s constitutional prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment. State v. McCollum, 334 N.C. 208, 433 S.E.2d 144 *65(1993) (Exum, C.J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) cert. denied, - U.S. -, - L. Ed. 2d - (1994).
Here, however, the evidence that defendant is mentally retarded is not uncontradicted, and the jury rejected defendant’s nonstatutory mitigating circumstance based on his being mentally retarded.
The generally accepted definition of mental retardation is that it afflicts the person in question with (1) a significant subaverage intellectual functioning (2) which exists concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and (3) which disability has manifested itself during the person’s developmental period. American Association on Mental Deficiency [now Retardation], Classification in Mental Retardation 1 (H. Grossman ed. 1983). General intellectual functioning is measured by IQ (intelligent quotient) tests. These tests vary; however, to be classified as mentally retarded, a person generally must score below 70, which would place the person among only three percent of the population. Amici Curiae Brief in Support of Petitioner at.5 n.2, Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 106 L. Ed. 2d 256 (1989).
Evidence presented at trial tended to show that defendant had a significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning. He dropped out of school during the eighth grade because he was unable to learn and was having difficulty staying awake during a large portion of the school day. Dr. Antonio Puente, a neuropsychologist retained by defendant, tested defendant by means of the Academic Wide-Range Achievement Test and determined defendant’s mathematical skills were in a fourth-grade level and that his reading and writing skills were at a level between first and second grade. Defendant’s IQ tested at 69.
Dr. Puente found defendant functionally unable to read or write and placed defendant’s mental age at six-and-one-half years. Dr. Puente further found defendant to be suffering from “somewhere between a moderate and severe” organic brain syndrome, a defective condition of the brain causing behavioral problems. The cause of this condition was believed to be severe head injuries suffered as a child, including a skull fracture after being dropped on his head as an infant, and hypertension, which caused him to have a facial stroke. In Dr. Puente’s opinion, defendant’s intellectual deficits left him with a poor ability to learn or remember and a limited ability to plan, carry out or reflect upon the serious issues in his life.
*66Notwithstanding Dr. Puente’s testimony, there was evidence before the jury indicating, among other things, that defendant was well able to function acceptably in society. For example, the evidence indicated that defendant was married and was the father of four children, two of whom were still living. Additionally, defendant helped his father by keeping his father’s cattle and repairing his father’s vehicles. Defendant’s brother testified defendant was always employed and that he fully provided for his children. Other testimony revealed that defendant successfully operated a junkyard, one of the larger businesses in the community.
Although evidence that defendant’s IQ tested at 69 was uncontroverted, there was positive evidence before the jury that defendant’s IQ did not result in a significant deficit in his adaptive behavior. This evidence, if believed, was sufficient to preclude defendant from being classified as mentally retarded and was enough to support the jury’s rejection of mental retardation as a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. Because the evidence on the issue of defendant’s mental retardation is in conflict and because the jury rejected mental retardation as a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance, I concur with the majority’s conclusion that to execute this defendant does not violate our State’s constitutional prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment on the ground that he is mentally retarded.