NCJ Number
166061
Date Published
1995
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The cases of death row inmates Johnny Lee Wilson, Leon Brown, and Morris Mason exemplify the criminal justice system's problems in addressing issues related to mentally retarded offenders.
Abstract
Johnny Lee Wilson is serving a term of life without parole, although his conviction for murder is based on a confession the police bullied him into making and no physical evidence has ever connected him to the 1986 murder of Pauline Martz. Sixteen-year-old Leon Brown became the youngest death row inmate in 1984 and has an IQ of 58. Virginia executed 32-year-old Morris Mason in 1985 despite his dual diagnoses of mental retardation and mental illness. Criminal justice outcomes are usually just for persons with retardation or other developmental disabilities. However, police need to understand the characteristics of mentally retarded people that can lead them to make false confessions. The 20 characteristics include reliance on authority figures for solutions to everyday problems, the desire to please persons in authority, the inability to abstract from concrete thought, short attention spans, and problems with receptive and expressive language.