Inmate Can be Executed Despite Mental Age, Court Rules

A death row inmate's mental age does not prevent him from getting executed, according to a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling on Thursday.

An attorney argued that Thomas Clyde Bowling, who was convicted of murdering a Lexington couple in 1990, had the mental age of an 11-year-old child when the killings occurred.

The Kentucky high court noted the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year, which banned executing killers who were not at least 18-year-old when they committed the crime. However, the state court concluded that the ruling was not specifically barring the execution of an inmate with a mental age younger than that.

Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Martin Johnstone did give some validity to the arguments brought by Bowling's attorneys, but decided that chronological age, not mental age was the main issue.

Bowling's attorney, David Barron, was pleased that the court did give his argument some credit. “This court recognized this as a valid legal concept that all courts should be concerned about,” Barron said.

The Kentucky Attorney General's spokeswoman, Vicki Glass, said the ruling was “an important step toward carrying out the jury's verdict.”