George Porter
An Idaho death row inmate convicted of murdering a Kamiah woman is testing the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision banning capital punishment for mentally retarded prisoners.
2nd District Judge John Bradbury will hear arguments Friday in Boise on whether George Junior Porter should be subjected to the death penalty.
Porter was found guilty for the killing of his former girlfriend, Teresa Jones, in 1988.
Attorneys for Porter, 52, claim the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling that an intelligence test score of 70 or so exempts the individual from the death penalty means their client should not be subject to capital punishment because Porter’s IQ is near that level.
However, the high court’s ruling left interpretation up to the states, and a study found that the standard had been applied differently in several states.
Friday’s hearing will be held at the Idaho maximum security facility where Porter is incarcerated.
A similar claim by convicted murderer Gerald Pizzuto was rejected by the state supreme court two years ago. Pizzuto was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1985 deaths of a woman and her nephew in Idaho County.
