James Lee Clark height - How tall is James Lee Clark?

On April 11, 2007, the day of the execution, the Steinway piano that John Lennon used to compose the 1971 song "Imagine" was placed outside the front door of the prison as a protest to the execution, a sign of peace and statement that there is too much violence in the world.

On January 20, 2005, the district court rendered final judgment denying the successive habeas corpus petition, which was overturned on March 16, 2005 when the district court granted Clark's application for a certificate of appealability. However, on July 20, 2006, the 5th Circuit Court affirmed the judgment January 2005 ruling and denied habeas relief. On August 29, 2006, the court denied Clark's petition for rehearing. Finally, on February 26, 2007, the Supreme Court denied Clark's petition for writ of certiorari. The trial court reset his execution date for April 11, 2007 and on February 28, 2007 Judge Gabriel signed the execution order.

In April 2003 Clark was assessed by clinical psychologist Dr. George C. Denkowski, who had previously assessed four other post-Atkins cases and concluded only one of the four had clear mental retardation under the statutes. Denkowski performed a six-hour examination of Clark, administering the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) and the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS). He determined that Clark had an IQ of 65 and had adaptive skills deficits in the areas of health, safety, social and work, thus clearly falling under the restrictions set by the Atkins ruling.

On November 17, 2003 a hearing, presided over by Judge Lee Gabriel, was held to examine this evidence. Gabriel, over defense objections, ruled that Clark would appear in court handcuffed, shackled, and wearing an electroshock stun belt, On November 20, after a three-day hearing, Gabriel rejected the findings of both Keyes and Denkowski and accepted those of Allen, ruling that Clark did not meet the legal standards for mental retardation. She cited a 1983 IQ test administered at the Gainesville State School indicating Clark's IQ at 74, stating that as it was given to Clark as a youth it was a more reliable standard as he had "no reason to fake results at that point." Dr. Jim Flynn, an expert on changes in IQ scores over time (the Flynn effect) wrote that "the best estimate" of Clark's IQ in 2003 would be 68.57 (similar to what Keyes determined), and "it is almost certain that [Clark's IQ] is not 70 or above."

After the landmark Supreme Court decision in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), which outlawed the execution of persons deemed mentally retarded, Clark moved his sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

The Supreme Court did not specifically outline exact definitions for "mental retardation" and suggested states follow the definition used by the American Association on Mental Retardation (which generally stated that an IQ less than 70 with two or more supporting limitations be used as the guideline), leaving ultimate decision to the individual states. The State of Texas adopted two definitions, both of which contain the same three basic elements, that mental retardation was a disability characterized by "significantly subaverage" intellectual functioning, accompanied with "related limitations in adaptive functioning" and a documented onset of these characterizations prior to the age of 18. Further, they determined that in testing for retardation "scores gathered through intelligence testing are necessarily imprecise and must be interpreted flexibly." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Clark did not meet any of the three criteria for retardation, and affirmed the lower court ruling to uphold his conviction and sentence. An execution date was set for November 21, 2002. However, on November 18, 2002 the execution was stayed pending further examination of Clark's assertion of being mentally retarded, pursuant to the Atkins ruling.

Both men were arrested at the Aubrey trailer after moderate resistance. They ultimately admitted they had been at Clear Creek, first claiming they witnessed Garza shoot Crews, before eventually admitting they had indeed robbed the teens. Each blamed the other for the actual murders. Clark claimed that it was Brown who instigated the crime and shot himself using the rifle as a bludgeon on Garza, after which he killed both teens. Brown countered that it was Clark who committed the murders. On September 12, 2000, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would find in favor of Brown's version of the story, on the grounds that with Brown's injury occurring prior to the murders, Clark must have unloaded the spent cartridge and reloaded the shotgun.

Clark was initially located in the Ellis Unit, but was transferred to the Allan B. Polunsky Unit (formerly the Terrell Unit) in 1999. Clark filed an appeal asserting he had been denied effective assistance of counsel because his original trial attorneys, Richard Podgorski and Henry Paine, made no opening arguments, called no witnesses for guilt or innocence in either the trial or penalty phase, and did not perform adequate discovery, having made no attempt to contact or interview any members of Clark's family or other relevant persons from his past. In fact, there is no evidence they even pursued these avenues despite the Supreme Court ruling, Wiggins v. Smith (2003), that established standards for effective legal counsel, stating that counsel must perform a reasonable exploration of investigation in constituting defense strategy or risk creating an unconstitutional deprivation of rights to effective counsel.

On July 27, 1998, Clark appealed this decision to the United States district court; the appeal was denied on December 13, 1999, again without allowing discovery or an evidentiary hearing. On January 12, 2000, he requested the district court review this decision, which was denied on January 28, 2000, including his petition to reexamine his claim of mental retardation being a mitigating circumstance to the crimes.

On October 6, 1996, the court upheld James Lee Clark's conviction and sentence on direct appeal. On October 15, 1996, his trial attorneys informed Clark they would no longer represent him and were replaced by James Rasmussen. On April 19, 1997, Clark filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals challenging the validity of his conviction and sentence and asserting eleven grounds for relief, including his claim of ineffectual counsel. The courts denied his application on July 8, 1998, without ever holding an evidentiary hearing, choosing instead to simply review the court records.

On April 29, 1994, a jury in Denton County convicted James Lee Clark of robbery and the murder and rape of Crews. On May 3, 1994 Judge Sam Houston sentenced Clark to death.

Clark and his accomplice, James Richard Brown, were charged with capital murder for the June 7, 1993 killing of 16-year-old Jesus Garza, and the robbery, rape and murder of 17-year-old Shari Catherine "Cari" Crews in Denton County, Texas. However, Clark was never tried for the Garza murder, and Brown was found guilty of only the robbery charge, for which he was sentenced to 20 years.

In 1989 Clark was convicted of a felony – the burglary of a building – and incarcerated in state prison. In 1991 he pleaded guilty to theft by a check and was confined to the county jail for 20 days, fined, and ordered to pay restitution. In 1992 he was convicted of burglary and received a 10-year sentence in prison, which is where he met Brown. On May 26, 1993, after serving only ten months of his sentence, Clark was granted parole due to the problem of overcrowding in the Texas prison system. Two weeks later Clark and Brown were arrested for the Crews and Garza murders.

On June 4, 1993, Clark and Brown participated in breaking into vehicles, stole a shotgun and a rifle, and went in search of someone to rob. In the early morning hours of June 7, 1993, they came upon Crews and Garza at Clear Creek near Denton, Texas, and the following day their bodies were pulled from the water. Crews' body was discovered nude with a pair of shorts around her neck and her wrists bound with her own bra. She had been raped and had died from a shotgun wound to the back of her head. Garza had been also killed by a close-range shotgun blast originating below his chin. Also recovered from the creek were a .22 rifle with the stock sawed off and the murder weapon, a 12-gauge shotgun.

James Lee Clark (May 13, 1968 – April 11, 2007) was an American murderer with an intellectual disability whose controversial execution by the state of Texas sparked international outcry. The controversy involved the argument that his execution violated the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), which held that executions of intellectually disabled criminals is cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.