Texas court overturns sentence for man on death row for nearly 50 years

It's expensive to house people on death row, too. They wasted a ton of money because I guess everyone was just too lazy to figure this situation out. The people who run the system can't be trusted to manage capital punishment in a way that's any kind of responsible.

Seems like with an IQ of 60 at best he should had been mandated to a state psychiatric facility even if he did murder someone.

Considering they've executed mentally ill people and even children nothing surprises me when it comes to this horror show of "justice". Just f****** vile.

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Most inmates will have an appointed attorney for their immediate post conviction appeal if they can't afford it, but not beyond that? There aren't enough public defenders. If their sentence is upheld, it's unlikely it will ever be overturned. Sometimes, they can get it reduced, though that's also hard. Overturning a conviction is extremely difficult because getting a murder conviction is pretty difficult. It requires a lot of evidence and meeting a high legal standard. Caveat: we all know innocent people are convicted and sentenced sometimes, and then there's the issue of people, mostly non-white people, sentenced during times when "fair trial" had a verrrry different definition than that of modern society. Death row can be different if people take an interest in the case but other times, the inmates are pro se. Advocacy groups take on cases of legal significance, not necessarily the guy who killed his girlfriend and left a trail of evidence a mile wide. The hard part is that you can't always tell the difference between the guy who killed his girlfriend and the guy who was railroaded. Violent criminals are not prone to taking responsibility for their actions. So the system can't be swayed by protestations; it runs on the assumption that the courts did their job properly, that the plea deal was voluntary, that the public defender was competent and the prosecution didn't withhold exculpatory evidence *unless and until* someone can prove otherwise. I'm not in favor of the death penalty for many reasons, but I guess that some people think the reality of executing some innocent people is okay balanced against executing a lot of bad ones. I suspect they'd change their mind if they were wrongly convicted.

Sounds about right for the One Star State.

They are not letting him out either. Hes still guilty and they are giving him life in all likelihood. They are just not pretending like they might one day kill a man who has already been ruled incompetant

In 2026, listening to Bohemian Rhapsody is like being in 1976 and listening to [Tea for Two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiK3APQP3LY&list=RDJiK3APQP3LY&t=13s). OK y'know what that T42 was a great song. But the point remains: we're old. Like Grandpa Simpson old.

shhhhhhhhhhhh it’s gonna be ok

I wish the IRS would understand I'm not a tax attorney and might as well have an IQ of 60 for the tax code.

that feels... weird? if you commit a death penalty crime i feel like you should get the death penalty no matter your state of mind? like what does having being mentally ill change on if you sit in a cell or die(i dont support the death penalty this legal semantic just confuses me)

The death sentence was overturned. Not the conviction.

It's in the article.  Seems they are upholding his guilt over the murder, but ruled he was/is not mentally competent enough to be sentenced to death.

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This is why I'm also against indefinite sentencing. Even 20 years + probation / monitoring is better than actual lifetime sentences. Someone is not even the same person after 20 years. I don't care what the crime is. The state does not have the right to withhold someone indefinitely. It is inhumane.

Top cop Masaad Ayoob said he knew of 60 wrongful death sentences. I'm pretty sure Mitch Rupe was innocent. 

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He's gotten a 60 or less on IQ tests. IQ tests have plenty of problems, but even taking those problems into account, that's the kind of territory that comes from literal brain damage and generally goes with someone being literally unable to care for themselves day to day because they don't understand basic things about normal life.

I disagree. I think sexual offenders and murders deserve to be locked up forever. Even at a young age. There are some bad people that just can’t be fixed and there’s no good system to figure it out.

17-year-old kills two people in cold blood. Said 17-year-old also has a long rap sheet. He gets tried, convicted, and sentenced at the age of 18. You really think our correctional system will be good enough to reform this convict before the release age of 38?

But then how would for-profit prisons make so much money? Surely we can sacrifice the freedom of a few minorities so that the rich can get richer.

This isn't about what you call indefinite sentencing.

Crazy how I remember people in my town getting arrested for being pedos when I was like 9. 20 years later I see them on the news again for the same shit. You sound like you don't know anything.

So you didn’t read the article

I fully agree with you about the death penalty, but this guy wasn't exonerated, he was simply found ineligible for the death penalty due to intellectual disability. He'll still do life in prison.

Read the story.

Well the guy is going to stay in jail because he still killed someone in cold blood. He just won’t get executed because he was determined to be mentally disabled. I agree our system is fucked, but maybe take the fifteen seconds needed to click and skim an article before making baseless statements.