McManus v. Neal

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying portion of defendant’s habeas petition that challenged his death penalty on murder charges, where defendant asserted that his intellectual disability precluded state from imposing death penalty. Three out of five IQ scores placed defendant in low normal range of intellectual functioning, and no expert testified that defendant fell within range for diagnosis of intellectual disability based on IQ-test evidence as whole. Fact that defendant’s IQ scores were not adjusted for “Flynn Effect” did not require different result, and defendant’s General Adaptive Composite score of 88 of ABAS-II test also indicated that defendant was not within intellectual disability range. Dist. Ct. erred, though, in denying portion of habeas petition alleging that defendant was not competent to assist in his own defense at trial after he suffered two panic attacks at beginning of trial, where: (1) defendant was subjected to powerful mixture of psychotropic drugs in effort to improve his mental state after he suffered panic attacks; (2) trial court never subjected defendant to competency hearing, even though his counsel made several motions for mistrial or continuance based upon defendant’s mental state; and (3) trial court never made clean factual finding that defendant either had rational understanding of trial proceedings or had capacity to consult with his attorneys during trial.