MEMPHIS, Tennessee —
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of a Tennessee death row inmate who claims he should not be executed because he is intellectually disabled.
Lawyers for David Keen say tests from 2008 and 2010 prove Keen’s intellectual disability. However, they say there is no mechanism in Tennessee to reopen Keen’s case and present the evidence to a court.
Attorneys for the state opposed Keen’s petition. They pointed to a resentencing hearing in 1997 where Keen presented evidence that included a much higher IQ than the later tests.
Keen was sentenced to death for the 1990 rape and murder of 8-year-old Ashley Nicole Reed in Shelby County.
