LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ A federal appeals court has ordered a new hearing on
whether an Arkansas death row inmate has an intellectual disability preventing
him from being executed.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday
reversed a lower court’s ruling that convicted murderer Alvin Jackson was not
intellectually disabled and ordered a new hearing on the matter. The panel said
it was not ruling on whether Jackson was intellectually disabled, but said the
matter needs more review in light of the instructions the U.S. Supreme Court
gave in a 2017 ruling on how courts should diagnose mental disabilities.
Jackson was sentenced to death in the murder of an Arkansas prison guard he
killed while serving a life sentence for capital murder.
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